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Guardian
NEWSPAPER OF THE TEAS!
Printed in London, Manchester, Frankfurt and Roubaix
The scandal that never was
Art forms of the century: photography
Sport
Liam Botham turns his back on cricket
Hie Week, page 20
Germany and France agree compromise on pact hailed a ‘victory for Europe’ as Britain looks on
Major trails in euro’s wake
Strategy for launch of single European currency gets an enthusiastic thumbs up after months of wrangling
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THE Dublin sum- mit last night struck a crucial compromise on the road to mone- tary union which paved the way Tor the launch of a single European currency on January l, 1999 — but left John Major's Britain trailing defiantly in its wake.
As smaller ELJ states, led by the Irish presidency, bro- kered an agreement between France and Germany on the new currency "stability and growth pact”, European offi- cials proudly revealed their winning design for the first euro banknotes.
The day’s work clears the way for a major political drive in the New Year to con- vince wavering public opin- ion in Germany, France and other countries to back mone- tary union — if the 1999 time- table can be met which Mr Major and Kenneth Clarke openly doubt
••This is a victory for Europe. It is a victory for the euro," enthused the commis- sioner for the single cur- rency. Yves Thlbault de Sil- guy, after the compromise had been hammered out But Mr Major’s response was more sceptical- He con- ceded the other EU countries were making "Herculean efforts” to meet the 1999 dead- line but said he was “very doubtful” that they would.
“There will be a huge effort to try. 1 agree with that But the difficulties that there were in agreeing the stability pact is but the first of a whole series of detailed decisions which will have to be taken.”
At Mr Major's side at the end of a week which saw his government lose their overall Commons majority, the Chan- cellor. Kenneth Clarke, was scarcely more upbeat saying lie gave odds of 60/40 on mon- etary union "by around the end of the century".
He said that the stability pact had "struck the right bal- ance" between budgetary dis- cipline — sought by Germany — and ensuring that "politi- cal control will remain with finance ministers’’, as Presi- dent Chirac of France had insisted.
Faced with the rampant hostility to the euro of many Tory MPs, Mr Major balanced positive support for some EU initiatives with dire warnings that the Union could be "blown wide open” if states favouring closer integration
insisted that others follow their lead later.
Yesterday's stability accord was reached after n hours of tortuous and, at times, arcane haggling. It came as the Euro- pean Monetary Institute un veiled its choice of design for euro notes. A decision on the design of euro coins will be taken at the Amsterdam European summit next June — when TOny Blair may be in Downing Street,
The final stages of the nego tiation consisted of 30 min utes of wheeling and dealing between Germany’s Chancel- lor Helmut Kohl and Presi- dent Chirac. They "finally agreed on the last precise fig ures and the detailed words used In the pact with a smile and a handshake", a watching Swedish diplomat said later.
The agreement was quickly made public by a visibly relieved Irish finance minis ter, Ruairi Quinn. There bad been fears a failure to agree the stability pact might have triggered doubts about the po- liitoatwill to keep to the 1999 timetable and the risk of cur- rency turbulence on interna tlonal financial markets.
"We are now able to say to the citizens of Europe and tc the markets that we have agreed the legal basis (of the euroX the ERM [exchange rate mechanism] mark 2, and the terms and conditions of the stability and growth pact," Mr Quinn declared.
“The terms of the stability pact might appear tough. But those who claim that adher ence of strict budget stability is bad for jobs and growth are completely wrong. Hie expe- rience of countries who have done most to meet the Maas- tricht criteria, notably Ire land, is that this lays the basis for low interest rates, and a growth of investment and consumer confidence. This is good for jobs."
Mr Major, who had earlier warned his colleagues on the need to reform EU labour markets — as the Tories had done — said later: “A lot ol pretty crucial" decisions remained to be taken. "Most crucial of all in due course will be the assessment of not just whether the criteria are artificially met on a particu- lar day but whether those cri teria are sustainable."
“If there is to be a bench mark it will be on the day when it becomes clear whether countries can sus- tain it"
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ie euro notes unveiled yesterday by EU officials in Dublin. A decision on coinage will be taken in June
Nick Varley on a race in South Africa on which some big reputations depend
In tbe blue comer . . . the pigeon fancying monarch
HE IS one of the most fearsome men on earth, reared on box-
hog in the Bronx.
She grew up in splen- dour. but has had a miser- able time of late; all that family squabbling and tax
demands. . .
Now the Queen is to meet Mike Tyson, ex-con and ex- heavyweight champion of the world, in a showdown worth £1 million.
Neither needs the money.
but pride is at stake, and both enjoy reputations as keen competitors.
They will clash early next year. More accnrately. and prosaically, the pairis pi- geons are to compete in one of the most valuable races of its sort.
Despite its flat cap and whippets Image, the rich ! and famous around the ! world have long been drawn to the sport of pi- geon racing.
Both tbe Queen and the recently deposed champion are keen fanciers, and both have entered birds in the Million Dollar Classic to be staged in Sun City, South Africa, in February.
They are among scores of fanciers who will be taking part in a race which marks a return to tbe monied roots of the sport.
The first racing pigeons in Britain were a present from the King of Belgium to George IV. Now It has all tbe trappings of modern sport, including drug tests — of droppings — and even television coverage in
South Africa. Viewers will be able to see if the Queen’s or Tyson’s birds, or any of the other 1,600 shipped in from Saudi Arabia, the US, China and Europe, gain the upper hand.
They will be trained to recognise their “home” lofts in South Africa, and the first back will win S250.000 — about £155.000.
Bnt they will have to have survived the heat, the threat from birds of prey and dehydration. And even then they might not be safe: many racing pigeons have a sorry end, cooked and en- cased in pie pastry.
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Deyan Sudjic, architecture correspondent, assesses the artistic merits, or otherwise, of the euro banknotes with their pan-national identities
BY BANK of England standards, with its fix- ation for depicting cricket matches and de- crepit whiskery Victorian men on its bank notes, the euro does at least look as if it belongs in this century.
But set beside the beauti- ful notes issued by tbe Dutch and the Swiss, the seven euro banknotes have the look of something makeshift, prepared in a hurry by an ex-people’s republic struggling to rid its currency of the iconogra- phy of Stalinism and ulti- mately foiling to catch up with the modern world.
Designings note isa curi- ous mix of conjuring trick and graphic skilL Tbe de- signer has to transform a worthless scrap of paper into something apparently of value reflecting a specific national, or in this case pan- national. identity.
Using the imagery of ar- chitecture and engineering to doitisall very well as an idea, but the execution is dismal. Instead of real places we get Identikit romanesque, fictitious ba- roque and film studio mod- em. They have all the grace of a Letraset catalogue.
And there is something mawkish about the symbol- ism of all those bridges spanning national divides, gateways and windows opening to a brighter future.
The notes missed a vital element, heads of the great and good. Without them a bank note looks as if it is missing a vital ingredient. The missing heads serve to remind us that we have no heroes, because we have no 1 heroes in common.
And as for the regalia of j the European identity de- !
picted on the reverse, what could be more hollow than a flag and a map?
The seven notes come in a range of acid colours (apart from what will undoubt- edly be the most common one. the E5. in Major grey): pink. blue, orange, green, yellow, purple. The name of the currency appears in both the Latin and Greek alphabets, plus a confusing array of initials of the Euro- pean Central Bank in five variants.
The designs were the win- ning entries of a competi- tion, open only to "experi- enced banknote designers nominated by the national central banks”. Their sub- missions were judged by 14 people — art historians, graphic designers and mar- keting experts. The British member of the jury was Nicholas Butler, billed by the European Monetary Institute as “an expert in industrial design".
, The shortlist was then market-tested by "frequent currency handlers" such as shop assistants and taxi drivers. The winners remain anonymous.
There are 12.7 billion national banknotes in cir- culation in the 15 member states. Tbe euro notes which will replace them will be issued by the EMI. The right to issue coins will remain with individual countries, but the amount issued will bave to be approved by the institute.
The first banknotes will be printed in 1998. The euro is dne to be introduced in participating countries by January 2002 at the latest, and national currencies will cease to be legal tender in those countries by July that year.
Protect yourself from the elements with the stylish Guardian International umbrella.
Queen and Tyson set for classic clash with £1 m purse
This large blue and white golfing umbrella features a fox frame and wooden handle, El 9.50. Price includes postage, packing and handling charges.
To place your order please fill in the form below and send it to: Guardian International Offer,
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In the red corner. . . deposed king Tyson, who ’did bird1
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The Guardian Saturday December 14 1996
Country braced for Saddam’s revenge after gun attack wounds his favourite son
Fear stalks Iraqi streets
David Hirst In Beirut
Thousands of
people gathered yes- terday in the Bagh- dad street where Saddam Hussein's elder son survived an assassi- nation attempt tn a staged cel- ebration of Uday Hussein's remarkable escape from gun- men who attacked his car.
But there were suspicions that Uday’s condition could be more serious than the regime has admitted, and be- hind the facade of celebration — marked by the slaughter of sheep — Iraqis were braced for sweeping retaliation.
Officials in Jordan said the border with Iraq closed for several hours after Thursday evening’s attack, apparently to prevent those responsible from fleeing the country. Iraqi officials searched cars and passengers crossing the border yesterday after it had reopened.
There have been no ciaimc of responsible ty for the daring assassination attempt, and exiled opponents of the Iraqi
Uday- a life of infamy
MORE than elaim-a to fame. Uday Hussein has nlalma to Infamy as the wild-child el- der son of Saddam Hussein.
Character: Often drunk, and sadistically violent.
Crimes: Last year shot an uncle, Wathban Ibrahim, whose leg was amputated in consequence. Blud- geoned to death his father's faithful food taster in 1988.
Target of hatred: Object of at least two other assassina- tion attempts since the 1991 Gulf war.
Key enmity: Despised by younger brother, Qusay. who presides over father's security agencies. "But I think we can rule him out Dn the assassination bid]", said an opposition figure. “Cyanide in C day’s whisky would be more his style.*'
regime are unsure whether it was carried out by enemies within the government itself, or outside it.
But they say that, either way, it is a brutal shock to the system — proof that in spite of his success in securing a partial resumption of oil exports. President Saddam is vulnerable to the sudden, un- expected blow that one day must bring his downfall.
According to yesterday morning's Baghdad news- papers, Uday — officially
described as only "lightly wounded" — was making a speedy recovery in hospital. Unusually, Youth Radio and Television — owned by Uday himself — had broken the news of the attack before It reached the outside world. But yesterday it did not men- tion the subject. This has fu- elled speculation that Uday's wounds are more serious than admitted.
As details of the incident emerged, one report from Baghdad quoted witnesses
saying two gunmen were involved.
Accounts from the exiled opposition were more dra- matic They cited witnesses as saying that four or five men armed with machine guns and grenades, took part in the attack in the smart res- idential suburb of Mansura.
Uday, aged 32, was repor- tedly seen with his bead cov- ered in blood — although it was not dear, as his guards rushed him to hospital, whether this was caused by
bullets or the smashed wind- screen. The assailants escaped.
If these accounts are true, the planning Involved most be disturbing to the regime although Uday has always presented an easy target No- toriously reckless, especially when drunk, he would often career unescorted around Baghdad in an expensive car.
His personal conduct has been highly provocative to a people whose rulers live in luxury while they sink into deeper misery. One theory, therefore, is that the assassi- nation bid was Just an Iso- lated expression of popular despair. That would be the least worrying for the regime.
It would be more concerned if it found that it was carried out by an organised group within the armed forces or se- curity services. One opposi- tion source claimed that among those already arrested were 200 members of an elite security apparatus.
The regime would be more alarmed still if it turned out to be another episode in the hidden feuds which rack Sad- dam's clan.
Pensioner recovers bungalow ‘stolen’ by elusive fraudster
Clara Dyer
Legal Correspondent
A PENSIONER whose bun- galow was stolen four years ago in an ingenious fraud has won it back despite warnings from legal experts that he had little chance.
Frank Higgins, aged 75, whose plight was first revealed by the Guardian, was yesterday
celebrating “a marvellous gift for Christmas, which camp out of the blue".
The former Royal Marine fitness instructor had the bungalow built in 1961 on land in South Wonston. Hampshire, bought for £500. He lived there until five years ago when he fell ill while vis- iting Scotland, had an opera- tion for cancer of the colon and moved into the Burntis- land, Fife, home of his fian- cee, EUa Millar, now aged 70, to recuperate.
He left the bungalow empty but furnished to await his return, but he developed fur-
ther health problems. Four years ago a man calling him- self Frank Higgins swore a statutory declaration before a solicitor that he was the true owner but had lost the deeds.
The Land Registry regis- tered the land and issued a certificate In the name of Frank Higgins The fraudster, who despite extensive police investigations has never been found, sold the property on to an Innocent purchaser, whose name, D. N. Wetton, replaced Mr Higgins's on the register.
Land law experts believed the real Mr Higgins had fallen through a loophole in the sys- tem under which a new buyer unaware of a previous fraud is entitled to remain on thp register as owner.
But the Land Registry, which accepts that it should have asked for proof that the fraudster was Frank Higgins, offered to refund the money Mr Wetton paid for the prop- erty from Its compensation scheme if he agreed to surren- der it to Mr Higgins. The deal.
which includes payment of Mr Higgins's and Mr Wetton's legal fees, is expected to cost the land Registry £100,000.
Mr Higgins, a second world war veteran who lives on tee state pension plus an £800-a- year private pension, was refused legal aid because of £9.000 savings. When he heard he was getting his bun- galow back, he felt "great, ab- solutely marvellous’'.
T felt tremendously reas- sured. My faith was restored in human nature.”
Homeowners face dearer mortgages as rates rise
Experts predict more interest rate rises before the election
RtehandMOi
Millions of homeown- ers face higher mort- gage bills in the New Year after two oT the biggest lenders yesterday announced a hike in their standard Inter- est rates.
Signalling dearer mort- gages for all. Hallfex. Brit- ain's largest lender with 2.5 million borrowers, upped its variable rate to 7.25 per cent. The rise comes Into force im- mediately for new borrowers, but takes effect on January 1 for existing customers.
Other lenders quickly fol- lowed suit, with Nationwide adding a quarter point to its
loan rate, which rises to 659 per cent. A third lender. Britannia, also increased its Interest charge to 755 per cent.
Although the cost of bor- rowing is still for below its peak when rates briefly hit 15.4 per cent in March 1990. economists believe they will rise again next year, possibly before the General Election.
An incoming Labour gover- ment may well be forced to bump up interest rates to con- tain inflation. Climbing house prices will bring added pres- sure to lift rates.
Yesterday’s increase puts between an extra £7 and £10 on the monthly bill for a £50,000 mortgage, the average size of a new loan. For Halifax
customers it is the first rise since February 1995. but it is the second within a month for Nation w We borrowers-
Mike Blackburn, Halifax's
chief executive, said the move followed October's rise in bank base rates. He said: ‘“The recovery in the housing market continues and over the last two years borrowers have benefited from low inter- est rates and low mortgage payments.”
Rob Thomas, of the invest- ment bank UBS. said rates will have to rise again early next year — if not before the election, at least shortly after- wards — as the economy beats up and inflationary pressures emerge.
Mr Thomas said climbing house prices will play a signifi- cant part- “They have really taken off faster than anybody expected,” he said.
Blair vote rigger named
Andrew CaH Media Correspondent
woman at the centre of Labour's attempts to rig the BBC’s Personal- ity of the Year award was last night revealed as a veteran Ministry of Agriculture civil servant specialising in hedge- rows and wildlife habitats.
Jules Hurry, who signed a letter to Labour Party work- ers urging them to fox their support for Tony Blair in the Radio 4 Today programme poll, has worked at the minis- try for about 20 years.
As Labour launched an internal inquiry, a succession of spin doctors and party lead- ers lined up to disclaim any responsibility.
The Ministry of Agricul- ture, Fisheries and Food said Ms Hurry, a middle-ranking policymaker on rural issues, had been on unpaid leave of absence since last month.
Ms Hurry signed die letter from Labour's audience par- ticipation unit, which is based at the party's media centre at Millbank and part of the team under campaign manager Peter Mandelson.
Despite the attempted vote- rigging, Mr Blair foiled to make the shortlist — al- though John Major is under- stood to be a contender.
Ms Hurry's involvement led for calls from Conservative MPs for an inquiry into the neutrality of the civil service.
' A MAFF spokesman said it was trying to contact Ms
Hurry, a civil servant in the countryside policy mill.
Embarrassed Labour offi- cials insisted Ms Hurry, who is a part)r member, had not bn> ken Civil Service rules. She has been granted a career break by MAFF because of her partner's disability.
A spokesman said: "Normal Civil Service rules apply dur- ing her leave of absence and those allow her to do clerical and backroom work for a polit- ical part}'. She is not allowed to campaign publicly or speak for a political party and she tuts not done so in any way.”
Brian Wilson, who runs Labour's rebuttals unit, admitted it had been a "tacky" venture. “It was a silly thing and there's no attempt to de- fend it,” he told Today.
The weather in Europe
Sunshine o Cloudy Showers Sunny
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Forecast
Today
the cities
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Lunchtime yesterday [previous day In Americas)
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Alter a fine and Frosty start outbreaks of stoat and snow will spread from the west across southern Norway and Denmark, eventually reaching south- ant Sweden towards evening. The snow will be heavy In places but should him to ram In Denmark and on Ihe Norwegian wset const. The rest qj Scandinavia will have a eoM day with one or two snow showers. Max tamp ranging From 3C In west- ern Denmark to minus SC In the north.
UwCwrtri— . Oanweny. Autrla,
Early fog and trost may persist all day In a few spots, but In mast places It will brighten up w«h some sunny periods. Switzerland, however, will have some outbreaks at rain and mountain-snow, and this may extend across parts OF Austria. Max tempo to 5C.
Southern France wUI be mostly dull and wet. espe- cially at first Else where early fog and frost will clear to allow some sunny epeHa. Max temp 3-10C tram north to south.
Early rain In the east wUI soon move away to leave a good deal of dry and bright weather, although more rein will reach the extreme south tonight Max temp 8-16C from north to south.
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Outbreaks of rain will soon reach the north and
IT8* 10 0,1 P®11* afternoon;
fte rain will be heavy at times with a rtak of thun- der In the south. Mm temp S-14C from north to south.
A ridge of high pressure should ensure a fine, bright weekend wtm good spells of sunshine, especially on the Islands. Max temp 13-16G.
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Five years ago. when yon took off your mink coat after shop- ping in the West End of London, you would probably find a gob of phlegm or a sticker on the back say- ing “Ugh! Your flisgriHHug far coat".
By the end of the ifiSOs. campaigners had cleared the streets of real for and Har- rods had closed its fur depart- ment due to lack of demand.
But after the first wave of environmentally aware cam- paigning subsided, designers started sneaking bits of fin: trim on collars and cuffs. Dolce & Gabbana. the Italian design duo. have warmed their fans’ necks, wrists and hearts with mfnte trim on chifibn coats and handbags.
Tomasz Starzewski, the London socialite who dresses minor royals, has had models wearing fur cuffs anri collars for the last few seasons Madonna, once a vociferous member of the anti-far cam- paign, has swathed herself In furs to get into the skin of her alter ego. Eva Peron.
After five years in the fash- 1 ion wilderness, fur is back as I an acceptable accessory. The ; Fur Education Council, a London-based organisation which speaks for the far
trade, riaims sales are up 30 per cent since last year. Her- bert Johnson, the hatters in Old Bond Street, London, has seen sales of mink, sable and fox far hats increase by 10-15 per cent year on year for the last five years.
“A lot of people were not wearing their for coats be- cause they were scared to walk out in furs in London.” said Richard Jaggs-Fowler, general manager of Herbert Johnson. “Now they are be- coming braver.”
A Dolce & Gabbana spokes- woman said: “We started mak- ing'fake and real for stoles and collars and cnflk, but there has been a much greater demand for the real thing.”
But these concessions to luxury at the expense of eth- ics have not gone unnoticed. This weekend, a disgusting billboard advertisement will be distressing millions of Brit- ons. The poster, by .campaign group Respect for ^Animals, shows a bloody, skinned fox's head on top of a fox for coat, with the slogan: “Doyou Jhave the face to wear for?”
The group began life in 1985 as the anti-far group I<ynx- Spokesman Mark (Rover said: "We saw the way for was being reported in the media, and we could see it was creep- ing back into respectability. Fashion pictures were begin- ning to portray for in a way that doesn't show the ugly brutality behind the glamor- ous veneer.”
In the 1980s, it was hip to be against almost everything. Designer Katharine Hamnett made clothes bearing anti-nu- clear slogans in letters a foot high. Lynx sold T-shirts bear- ing jungle designs with the catchline: “The roar of disap- proval’'. Top designers such as Yoji Yammamoto came out with huge fake fur coats to pink and lime green. Fun for was not just something you wore, it was a statement American designer Galvin Klein promised to stop using for after Feta (People for the Ethical Treatment of Ani- mals) picketed his offices and forced Mm to watch a video of animals caught to traps.
A Peta spokesman, Andrew
Butler, said thht at this time of. year, the far industry al- ways claims attitudes have changed. ‘Tor sales plum- meted to the "late-- 1980s, and they've been going 'down since. The only designers using for are the ones who never stopped.”
Peta began its ‘Td rather go naked than wear far” cam- paign to the mid-1980s, aim- ing at the fashion-conscious. It struck a blow for baby seeds with a poster featuring four naked supermodels.
But the trouble with being hip is that everything that’s in. sooner or later, goes out
Audiences stirred by the anti-far message of Disney's 101 Dalmatians will be se- duced by the striped and spot-
ted creations worn by CrneQa De VlVplayed by Glenn Close. There is some mid-1990s con- fusion to the profusion of Dal- matian-spotted jackets and accessories in the shops.
Next month's edition of the glossy Tatler magazine fea- tures four socialites to the buft a publicity stunt for Peta. One of them, Tamara Beckwith, admits she does not lie awake worrying about the brutal death of forry animals, while Tara Newley, Joan Collins's daughter, tem- porarily forgets which char- ity she is promoting: Tve al- ways fantasised about being a terrorist for Greenpeace-”
Tatler carries a disclaimer to distance these radical views from the editorial
standpoint, which welcomes fur advertisers. Editor Jane Procter said: *T don't think there’s anything wrong with far. I canfseg'thef difference between wearing sheepskin and far, as long as it's not an endangered species.”
She was surprised to see far in the latest winter coHecfions, as tbe UK fashion industry lifted its voluntary ban. “We thought it was Sake. It was only when, we looked closely that we realised it was real”
Tatler, resolutely unfash- ionable as ever, is picking up cm the fashion for wearing your principles on your sleeve, several years after everyone else has used- their Hamnett anti-Pershing T- shirts to clean windows.
Catwalkers steal the march on fakes
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— ■ .■*—
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Susannah Frankel, Fashion Editor, feels what ifs like to don someone else’s coat
Nothing is quite like the feeling of wearing fur. The effect Is rather like being wrapped In feathers — protected from the elements, warm, safe and secure, if only m the knowledge that yon are one of the privileged few who can actually afford it, and revel in the status that
^ that’s presum- ably the reasonmg bwund
the re-emergence of the fln> wearing foateriti^- It Is true that there does appear to be more for on the catwalk thanfoere has
been for years. PebPl® spending more money on clothes than they have done SSS the 1 98 OS- The kudos of designer labels, too, hack with a ferity hasn’t been seen since the first half of that most deca- dent of decade*.
That said, for th®*a*£ majority of os, thetoeaof wearing animal for seems
inappropriate, vulgarev«£ We might have more moitey to spend on our physical ap- pearance than we used to.
Fur facts
Madonna as Evita, swathed
in a symbol of the very rich
□ Upto100scpJirre^sor dh^nchBlas, 80 minks or 50 foxes are used to make a full-tengtfi coat, says Peta. They are starved, gassed or electrocuted.
□ There are nine fur farms in .Britain — down from 60 10 years ago.
□ UK sales have gone from £80m in 1 984f.£1 1 m in 1 989, Cl 8m in -1 993 to
£22m in 1 994, says the Fur Trade Association. The Fur Education Council says sales were up 30 per cent last year.
hut while luxury may no longer be a dirty word, os- tentatious certainly is- Our climate no longer demands that he killed .for
onr comfort.
And for all the column
inches devoted to real 'for and its comeback, there are as many, -if not more, that riahn that more efficient heating systems means lay- ering clothes is the most practical way to dress.
Real for first became a fashion commodity in the 19th century, reaching its peak of. popularity around the turn of the century, when fur capes, muffs.
stoles and trimmings on coats ami evening gowns were the thing for wealthy merchants and aristocrats to be seen in. Sealskin was the most sought after. In the 1920s and '30s. for was equally de rigueur — how else could yornig damsels in the slightest fringed, headed creations protect themselves from the cold?
It wasn't until the ’60s that it dawned on people that for was not only ethi- cally unsound but that the look of it should be made available to more than just the very wealthy.; And so the fun fur, a mixture of
various acrylic fibres, was bom. Relatively inexpen- sive. it also had the advan- tage of being easily dyed In hold colours. It Is a look that baa lasted, and fake fur coats are more In demand flwm ever.
It's hardly surprising cansidering that the aver- age price of a fake fur coat at Harrods is around £3 BO compared with £3,249 for a bine fox fur stole.
“We dosed our real far department in 1990,” says Andrew Wiles, director of press and public relations at Harrods. 4 There simply wasn’t the demand, and we needed the space for fash- ion- We do sell coats with for linings mid trimming, which is a for more discreet look.”
Fake furs, however, are flying out of the store. “We’ve just re-ordered- The best-selling versions are short and black, a for cry from the plethora of white far-trimmed handbags or impossibly opulent, russet- coloured collars seen on the runways in October.
The fact that much. of what appears on the cat- . walk win never go Mto pro- duction is nothing new. As an aspirational show-piece then, real for might be making some kind of a comeback. Whether the British, public will actually ever be prepared to wear it
is another matter.
Left: Kate Moss wearing
Fendi Autumn/ W inter 1993, a real far coat and signature print jeans
Above: The Tatler picture ofPeta supporters, from left, model Tamzta Greenhill, actresses Tamara Beckwith and Sheba Ron ay — granddaughter of gourmet Egon and daughter of designer Edina, and broadcaster and writer Tara Newley — daughter of actress Joan Collins
Right TheRespect for Animals poster
PHOTOGRAPH ABOVE: ©JOHN SWANNS-UTAT1XR. CONOE HAST
YOU’RE LOOKING AT the difference between Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey and a Kentucky bourbon.
At our distillery in the Tennessee hills, we bum ricks of hard maple until they become charcoaL Then we trickle our whiskey, drop by drop, through that charcoal to mellow its flavor Some folks call Jack Daniel’s a "bourbon,” but the U. S. Government says our charcoal mellowing makes us a "Tennessee Whiskey” If you’re looking for a difference, we believe one sip will tell you all you need to know.
IACK DANIEL’S TENNESSEE WHISKEY
4 EUROPEAN SUMMIT THe Guardian Saturday December 141996
Premier lectures fellow leaders on flexible labour markets as differences over immigration controls and borders are kicked into touch
Major boasts UK is ‘grit in EU oyster’
Chancellor Kohl looks on as President Chirac chats to Joachim BltterUch (second left), a German foreign policy adviser, and Then Waiffrt. the German finance minister. John Major talked of a raft of disagreements
Unity on the fight against drugs, but some crucial snags remain
Michael White In Dublin
A SHOW of European ZA unity over the fight # lagainst drug traffic king and organised crime was achieved by the Dublin sum- miteers yesterday, but funda- mental differences over the control of Immigration, asylum and national borders were again kicked into touch.
After a session spent dis- cussing the Irish draft text of EU treaty revisions — to be decided in Amsterdam next June — John Major signalled a raft of disagreements on which he would not budge, though he stressed they were only on relatively few issues-
"The United Kingdom is sometimes the grit in the European oyster. It may not look very pretty from the out- side, but it is pretty effective inside.”
The Prime Minister, who
earlier gave his colleagues what amounted to a lecture on flexible labour markets — “a monologue, not a dia- logue’' one called it — in- sisted that the key to future harmony was a flexible ap- proach which allowed some states to move closer together without others either pre- venting them or being forced to follow. "The wrong sort of flexibility would blow Europe wide apart”
With Mr Major adamant that he will not give way over Britain's literally insular tra- ditions of tough border con- trols, or allow the European Court or Justice any say in immigration or asylum pol- icy, he did join forces with President Jacques Chirac of Prance to launch a drugs initiative.
The two proposed that the EU repeat last year’s anti- drugs campaign in the Carrl- bean, but this time to focus
their offer of expertise — equipment, border control and training for customs offi- cers — on Central Asia which is beginning to export narcot- ics into the EU.
They told fellow-leaders in a letter circulated in Dublin: “All of us are affected by the continuous supply of illicit opiates and heroin from Cen- i tral Asia. The limited counter-narcotics capabilities I in the zone allow traffickers to explore attractive new routes."
Cooperation at inter-gov- ernmental level, rather than through EU institutions, is seen by Whitehall as the best approach. Mr Major Is telling his EU colleagues that, after a slow start which reflects the cautious culture of police and justice officialdom, the 15 have begun to achieve more in this field than they yet realise.
New measures to combat sophisticated cross-border crime confirmed at Dublin in- cluded stronger cooperation by police and customs; renewed targeting of the Bal- kan drugs routes into the European heartland, usually bringing in drugs from the South Asian "Golden Trian- gle” via Turkey, and stronger measures to detect and pun- ish illicit cultivation within Europe's borders.
A review of national laws that may impede effective action against slavery and the sexual exploitation of chil-
dren was also endorsed. But the drive by some member states to use the current inter- governmental conference — reviewing the machinery of European institutions — for expanding the ECTs suprana- tional role in border control i and Immigration remains subject to further negotiation | before the conference ends at , the Amsterdam summit The incoming Dutch EU | presidency is keen to incorpo- 1 rate the Schengen Agreement ,
— abolishing border controls
— formally into the EU I
Power to impose deficit penalties rests with council of ministers
have been only a dozen or so the stability pact will apply to examples of countries hit by countries which do not Join
such a severe drop in output. However, the stability pact
the single currency. But the strict financial targets set for
goes on to say that waiving of acceptable budget deficits arc the budget deficit limits bound to influence the atii-
mlght be considered in a less serious economic recession,
tude of the international fi- nancial markets towards non-
hut a country pleading for EMU countries judged to be special treatment will still spendthrift.
have to show that its circum- Although the German gov-
stances are “nevertheless ex- eminent originally argued for ceptlonal in the light of fur- open fines linked to the
treaty. Mr Major has made plain that London will resist that, as it will efforts to har- monise asylum and immigra- tion policies.
It emerged yesterday that EU interior ministers agreed at a secret conference in Paris to study harmonising anti- terrorism laws and speeding up extradition procedures, ac- cording to a Flench terrorism expert.
Roland Jacquard, head of the International Observa- tory of Terrorism, told Reu- ters that France's Jean-Ixmis Defare hosted a meeting an October 22.
"Justice and police repre- sentatives from the United States were also present The ministers ret up a working group on harmonising anti- terrorism laws and on speed- ing up extradition proce- dures- The plan is for such conferences to take place every three months."
— ■ ■ -■ — Although all countries
John Painter which join the monetary
union Will be expected ■—
THE single currency sta- eventually — to run balanced bility pact agreed In Dub- budgets, they win be allowed Lin yesterday will hand to run deficits of up to.3 per
ther supporting evidence. In particular on the abruptness of the downturn or the accu- mulated loss of output rela- tive to past trends.”
in a binding political decla- ration, EU governments have
amount above 3 per cent of any budget deficit, the agree- ment is for a maximum penal- ty of 05 per cent of a coun- try’s GDP.
‘The terms of this pact might seem tough." an EU
I lin yesterday will hand to run deficits of up to.3 per GDP o£ at least 0.75 per cent far-reaching powers to the cent of GDP in any year. They In this event the European European Union council of will be permitted to exceed Commission will make a
. - . . , . .... ... _ jl,. T__ M XI.. . ^ .a An'mnil nf mini,.
agreed that this will normally official said last night. “But only require an annual fell in countries which stay outside
ministers to determine the these limits or fete of countries that take show that they part in the single currency. “temporary ar
If a country taking part In circumstances, economic and monetary Natural diss
these limits only if they can report to the council of minis- show that they are victims of tens on whether there Is a
union breaks the terms or tide God and other unforeseeable single currency “growth and developments could justify
“temporary and exceptional case for relaxing tbe rules, circumstances." The council will then make a
Natural disasters, acts of decision on a qualified major- God and other unforeseeable ity vote, developments could justify The tortuous compromise
stability pact”, the council relaxation of EMU budget could impose huge financial limits at feast temporarily.
Is designed to alleviate fears, particularly in Germany, that tbe single currency might be
penalties. Much of the 11th But the difficult question was the single currency might be hour negotiations before the just how severe a normal eco* too soft, and to prove that the agreement focused on the cir- nomic crisis would have to be EU will be tough on countries cumstances that might justify before a country with an "ex- running up huge deficits. By
cumstances that might justify
running up huge deficits. By
a country’s exceeding the cessive deficit” was accorded carefully ensuring that the
tough budget disciplines set a similar indulgence.
final word on sanctions remains a natter for political
out in the Maastricht treaty. The answer agreed in Dub- remains a natter for political But at the heart of the issue lin yesterday was that a decision, the pact can be pre- was a German attempt to country would have to show seated in France and else- Umlt the powers of ministers that it suffered an annual fell where as a defeat for the idea
limit the powers of ministers
where as a defeat for tbe idea
to waive or dilute the sane- of real GDP of 2 per cent or I of automatic sanctions.
the single currency may be hit for harder by the massive interest rate increases which can result from the displea- sure of the financial markets."
Ironically, the arguments about the single currency’s precise budget deficit limits may be overtaken by an EU- wide review of economic sta- tistics. which is due to report in two years.
Because of the grow ing im- portance of the service sector, particularly in information technology, all EU countries may find that their actual GDP levels are higher than the current figures — in which case the relative im- portance of their budget defi- cits will decrease as a per-
tions in the stability pact
more. In recent decades there I None of the pro vis ions of | centage of GDP.
m
computing printing copying jwkj
imaging
We’ve
‘Soulless’ euro note finds few friends among future users
□
put a
David Shanrock on a Dublin cash course
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somr
IF the voices of the most enthusiastically Euro-
printer
into our
fax
machine
pean nation in the Union are to be believed, then the dream of a single currency finally foundered in Dublin yesterday.
Within, moments of the launch of the new euro — seven gaudy notes in de- nominations from five to five hundred — the plain people of Ireland were de- nouncing them in the earthy language of the Citi- zen, the anti-hero of Janies Joyce's Ulysses.
“I wouldn’t wipe my arse with one," was the un- equivocal response of a
white-haired, gentleman for whom Dublin's day at the epicentre of the European dream was going on for too long. "Y’mean we’ll be spending these in 2001? Well Tm not for it." he said as he hurried across tbe Halfpenny Bridge.
The lor tariff in the Auld Dubliner in Temple Bar claimed a pint of stout costs 2.89 euros. The Irish Gov- ernment is spending £300,000 to promote tbe new currency even though it will not replace the punt for another four years.
Most people seemed to think that was a waste of
money bat so long as it was European money being wasted who cared? Since joining the European club In 1973 the republic has received £24 billion.
Beyond a set of crash-bar- riers lay Dublin Castle, the venue for the meeting of 26 European leaders, 1,000 senior EU officials, 2,000 journalists and 4t>0 Irish staff — the largest free bar opened on Irish soil.
A major turn-off for the Dubliners was the absence of human beings on the euro notes. Deliberate, ac- cording to the president of the European Monetary In-
stitute (EMI). Alexandre Lanfaleussy. "The diffi- culty with people is tbat the normal tradition of bank- notes is to take a personal- ity and these people usually belong to a country,” be ex- plained. "We would have fallen back into the nation- ality bias."
"I'd rather stick with what we’ve got, these just have no personality." said 17-year-old Joanna Mat- thews. Ah there they go again, the plain people of Europe getting it wrong. According to the EMI. a sample of 2,000 Individuals had rated them highly. Not bad from a Euro-population of 380 million.
One feature of the euro which made Irish eyes smile, however, was the tiny space reserved for a national symboL Tbe plea- sure came from watching the British tabloids work- ing themselves into a frenzy aver the Queen’S head being shrunk to a fraction of Its size on the sterling note. There was no shortage of volunteers to perform the operation.
Bank ready to bury £1 9bn as cash trade welcomes change
to give you some
Owen Bowcott
THE Rank of England could replace all £19 billion of
extra
space
TIM Canon MultiFASS 10 fa* machine ooutwns HUttfftSS WtiWiliwfWh means it cm te used as a pnntix far lurttar ntarmauoa freojUMna 0500 346 3(8
Canon
If anyone can Canon can
■ replace all £19 billion of notes in circulation with euro currency “as a matter of rou- tine”, it said yesterday.
If Britain joined the first wave of monetary union, ster- ling notes would be shredded, pulped and dumped in landfill sites during the year 2002.
The euro notes which would replace them have been designed to be compati- ble with the cash dispensers operated by all high street banks and building societies.
"We have carried out simi- lar operations replacing notes when we phased In new £50 notes,” a Bank of England spokeswoman said yesterday. "We used to burn the old
notes, but we are environ- mentally more conscious nowadays. All tbe old notes would be chopped up and buried In the ground."
The outgoing notes would Include a small number of £1 million ones used solely for internal accounting purposes at the Bank of England.
If Britain accepted the time- table for first wave countries, euros would become curency on January 1, 2002, with ster- ling withdrawn by July 1. to that six-month Interim period, both currencies would be in open circulation.
NCR, which manufactures 80 per cent of Britain's 20,000 cash dispensers, said it would be possible to set their ma- chines to dispense both cur- , rencies, and that converting one to deliver euro notes
would take no more than an hour.
The new currency has been welcomed in the industry as euros Incorporate security features making it easier for machines to count deposits.
As for the outgoing notes, the Bank of England that they would be honoured long after the changeover date - there are, for example. 56.1 million £1 notes still to be redeemed.
o
“I have a one point plan to save the country. Abolish the licensing laws.”
Josh Astor
The Week page
*
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The Guardian Saturday December 14 1996
Ghanaian gets nod as French drop objections
Annan to be UN secretary-general
WORLD NEWS 5
Marts Tran In N«w York
Kofi annan of
Ghana was anointed as the nest secre- tary-general of the United Nations by the Secu- rity Council yesterday, after France dropped its opposition to a man who has spent al- most half his life at the UN.
'Hie end of a week-long im- passe, caused hy a French "non" in a round of straw polls, was announced by Brit- ain’s UN envoy. Sir John Weston, before a maw of reporters, diplomats and glar- ing television lights outside the UN Security Council.
France had objected to Mr Annan because he could not speak French, but put an end to its blocking tactics after be- hind-the-scenes arm twisting from some of the UN’s most powerful members. - The outgoing secretary-gen- eral, the Egyptian Boutros Boutros-Ghali, said he was pleased that Africa would have a second five-year term at the twinv Mr Annan had been nominated because the United States vetoed a second term for Mr Boutros-Ghali.
The choice of Mr Annan as the world's top diplomat caps a 30-year career within the organisation that has given the 58-year-old Ghanaian an intimate knowledge of the UN. from budgetary matters to peacekeeeping.
Bom in Knmast Ghana, Mr Annan had not planned on a lifelong career at file organi- sation he will now head. “I did not set out with the inten- tion of working for the UN,” he said last year. ‘T was look- ing forward to going home after I had finished my post- graduate studies, then I was presented with the opportu- nity of working with file World Health Organisation in Geneva for a couple of years and here I am today.”
Mr Annan has enjoyed a steady rise through the UN
Castro hands White House a potent peace offering
Richard Thomas fn Washington
THE UNITED States has received an nnusnal peace offering from Presi- dent Fidel Castro of Cuba; six tons of high-grade Co- lombian cocaine.
The Clinton administra- tion has been trying to rebuild relations with Ha- vana, but officials were taken aback by Cuba’s handover of a narcotics haul it seised in October.
Wilfredo Fernandez, a spokesman for the US attor- ney’s office, said the Cuban officials who found the co- caine In a Colombian freighter, the Limerick, might testify in the US courts.
The US coastguard had to abandon a search of the ship when it began to sink. The crew were detained on suspicion of drag smug- gling, but the case seemed closed when the ship drifted into Cuban waters.
The two countries have no formal diplomatic rela- tions. The US has accused President Castro of being in cahoots with Colombian drug cartels, and the Helxns- Burton act, which penalises those trading with Cuba, has widened divisions.
But two congressional delegations visited Cuba this week, and news of the co-operation prompted hopes that Cuba may be reversing its hostility to the rug Enforcement Agency.
News in brief
bureaucracy, and it was the Bosnia conflict that first thrust him into the public eye. Although faulted by some for a lack of charisma, his coolness under fire his straightforward style earned him foe respect of those who dealt with him.
He is currently under -secre- tary general for peacekeeping operations, a position he has held since 1993, but previ- ously worked in various ad- ministrative positions — in- cluding a spell as assistant
Annan- maintains Afrinm
presence at top of foe UN
secretary general for pro- gramme planning, budget and finance.
Mr Annan’s priority wQL be to restore morale among staff members demoralised by the damage infiirtaii to the UN’s reputation hy foe war in Bos- nia, during which the organi- sation was made the scape- goat for the diplomatic shortcomings of Britain, France and the US. The deba- cle in Bosnia followed the ill-
feted nafiftn-hnildlng exercise in Somalia, where the UN was forced to pull out with its tail between its legs.
His other urgent task is to act as an effective chief spokesman for the UN and to
promote foe organisation, es- pecially to an Indifferent American populace. .
mis was a job for which Mr Boutros-Ghali, despite his ac- knowledged intellect, proved to be woefbDy under-quali- fied. Mr Annan has acknowl- edged that foe UN has suf- fered from a public relations problem.
“I do not blame the public for1 not seeing the problems we face. As an organisation we have not told our story well,” he said. “People talk of the fallings of fire UN, forget- ting that we have many success stories. Look at what happened in Namibia, Mo- zambique, CannhnHja flpd ill South Africa during the elec- tions, where we played a major role.”
In New York, the UN’s fi- nancial crisis, due mainly to a US reftisal to pay $L4 billion in arrears, has also contrib- uted to feelings of despon- dency. One reason why Mr Annan received foe Clinton
arimfriictratirurTg ttfiflrlng is
its hope that he will help win over Republicans on Capitol Hill and pull the UN out of its financial squeeze.
Mr Annan is a popular choice with UN officials, who disliked foe autocratic and remote Mr Boutros-Ghali. “I hoped he would get the job, he was the best of the lot,” said one UN official. But others have reservations about Mr Annan’s iMt^rship qualities, especially given his spotty
Tnanagomnnf record OVBT tllP
years..
There are also lingering doubts as to whether his mild- mannered, soft-spoken char- acter can stand up to foe bul- lying tactics of the big powers. For alibis faults, Mr Boutros-Ghali was no wall- flower when dpnltng with the five permanent council mem- bers — one reason foe US wanted to see foe back of him. “If Mr Annan has one weak- ness. it’s his eagerness to please,” a UN diplomat said.
Clinton spurns critics of Reno
Martin Walker In Washington
■^RESIDENT Clinton an- B^nounced a further wave ■ of cabinet appointments yesterday and, overruling the doubts of his political advi- sers, reappointed Janet Reno as attorney-general
The advisers were worried that Ms Reno might be too ready to appoint Independent counsel to investigate senior administration members. In keeping her, Mr Clinton has signalled that he Is not too worried by the prospects of legal action arising from foe Whitewater scandal
Mr Clinton also announced that Congressman Bill Rich- ardson of New Mexico would replace Madeleine Albright as ambassador to the United Nations.
Despite his surname. Mr Richardson is a leading mem- ber of foe Hispanic commu- nity, raised in Mexico City by his Mexican mother.
A freelance diplomat who has secured the release cf US citizens haid in North Korea, and last week in Sudan. Mr Richardson is a warm sup- porter of the UN and human rights and a leading critic of the Burmese government
As a former member of foe House of Representatives, Mr Richardson Is thought to have a better chance of persuading Congress to pay the $L4 bil- lion (£875 million) which the US owes in contributions to the United Nations.
The power of the Daley dy-
nasty cf Chicago was en- hanced by the nomination of William Daley, son of the leg- endary mayor and brother of foe current mayor, to be sec- retary of commerce. The Republicans have slackened their efforts to close this vast sprawl of a ministry, which ranges from the census and the weather burean to weights and measures and do- mestic and foreign trade.
Called in three years ago to manage the effort to steer foe North American Free Trade agreement through Congress, Mr Daley is expected to con- tinue the late Ron Brown’s efforts to turn the commerce department • into a hard-sell- ing export agency.
Despite some legal difficul- ties, Mr Clinton" has nomi- nated Charlene Barshe&ky as US trade representative. Hav- ing represented Canadian timber interests as a lawyer in private practice, she will need a special waiver cf file law which excludes anyone from the USTR Job who has worked for foreign governments.
A tough negotiator, known in Japan as “the dragon lady”, she has scored some successes in brinkmanship with foe Chinese government.
Mrs Barshafeky enjoys a love-hate relationship with her European counterpart. Sir Lean Brittain. Earlier this year he accused her of “talk- ing conense”, she retorted that he was “schizophrenic”, and then flew to London to tafcg him to dinner and make up.
35 held in bank siege
received bullet en a disgruntled employee held 35 age in a Paris ■day, writes Alex in Paris.
A the man, who I after a two-hour oulevard Hauss- a former em- they did not give if details of his Inst AD Capital
It’s salary
di Maggio, the d has accused the is prime minister neotti of kissing “boss of bosses’ . ndreotti’s trial in ■day that he had 30,000 in official » turning states Reuter.
□es jet with 103 1 off the run- airport, Spain.
while landing in a rainstorm. Passengers said rescue per- sonnel were slow to react to their plight — AP-
Burma lashes out
Burma and the United States tangled yesterday when Ran- goon prevented a US diplo- mat, Kent Wiedemann, from meeting the opposition leader Aung San Sun Kyi and accused Washington of inter- fering in Burma’s Internal af- fairs. — Reuter.
Smile Singapore
As part of a “Smile Singa- pore” campaign to make tour- ists feel loved. Singapore im- migration officers have been given mirrors to check the quality of their expres- sions.— New York Times.
Gunmen’s victims
Tribal militants fighting for autonomy in Kafeysopur vff lage, Tripura state, north-east India, gunned down 22 people
and set fire to houses. — AP.
Law firm curtis
China is planning new curbs on foreign law firms that
would limit, their business and raise operating costs, for- eign lawyers and business- men said yesterday. The curbs would ban foe hiring of
Chinese nationals as lawyers or legal assistants. — Reuter.
Death row plea
The Pope has made a personal plea to the United States to spare Joseph O’Dell, a death row inmate just days away from a lethal injection In Vir- ginia, who says he has new DNA evidence that proves his innocence. — Reuter.
Rat killers’ party
A dance is to be held In Caba- tuan. Hollo province, Philip- pines, as part of a campaign to
control field rats that are ruining many acres of crops. The entrance “fee” will be 50 rat tails. —AP.
Name of the game
Manhattan Plaza, Monte Carlo Villas and other foreign wamfla have been banned in Canton, south China, in an effort to promote Chinese cul- ture, an official report said yesterday-— AP.
A purpose-built road lets Israelis avoid Palestinian areas when travelling to West Basok settlements north of Jerusalem photograph: greg marinovich
Likud tempts more settlers with cash
Shyatn Bhatia In Jerusalem
THE Israeli cabinet de- cided yesterday to channel millions of extra pounds to Jewish set- tlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The 150,000 settlers will get “priority A" status, which vrill entitle them to generous tax concessions and govern- ment grants.
The arrangement should encourage other Israelis to move to the occupied territo- ries. Government officials
have expressed the hope that the incentives will swell the number qT settlers to more than 500,000 by foe end of the century.
Nabil Abu Rdaineh, a spokesman in Gaza for the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, said foe decision en- dangered foe peace process.
-This is an escalation of the situation,” he said. “ThJs could destroy the peace process.”
A rally in Kban Younis of more than 20,000 supporters of the Islamic resistance movement Hamas railed for more suicide bombings
against israeL
A leaflet distributed at the rally by the military wing, Iz- zedln Qaaaam, invoked the name of Yehiya Ayash, who masterminded several suicide bombings against Israel be- fore being assassinated, pre- sumably by Israeli agents, earlier year.
It said: “Our response to the martyrdom of Yehiya Ayash . . . will be violent and painful.”
Israel Radio said last night that police were on full alert for new terrorist attacks.
Checkpoints have been set up at main road junctions and
streets have been cordoned off around the Shalom Tower, the tallest building in Tel Aviv and thought to be a de- sirable and obvious target for attack.
Meanwhile the Damascus- based Popular Front for foe Liberation of Palestine (FFLF). which has claimed responsibility for Wed- nesday’s killing near the West Rank town of Hebron of two Jewish settlers, a mother and her 12-year-old son, called on Palestinians to launch a new intifada against Israel.
George Habash, the ageing leader of the PFLP, vowed to
continue his terrorist cam- paign against Israel.
He told a rally at the Yarmuk refugee camp near Damascus: "The expansion of settlements requires the masses to renew foe intifada against IsraeL”
The PFLP hopes that disen- chanted supporters of Mr1 Arafat’s mainstream Fatah organisation and members of his police force will join foe Damascus-based Palestinian Rejectionist Front, an um- brella organisation of 10 radi- cal Palestinian groups, in- cluding both Hamas and the PFLP.
Tigers beat the South African heat wave
A game warden, Johnny Fourie, watches tigers Ben (left) and Gal from a nearby zoo as they frolic and cool off at foe Hartebeespoort dam, near Pretoria, in the Sooth African mid -summer beat wave photograph: henh ialjoen-bero
ANC cadres apply for amnesty
Agencies in Pretoria
THREE cabinet minis- ters and a deputy minister were among 60 members of the rul- ing African National Con- gress who applied for am- nesty to South Africa’s post- apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission yesterday, foe party’s spokes- man Ronnie Mamoepa said.
He declined to specify foe offences for which Joe Mo- dise. Jay Naidoo. and Sydney Mufamadi — ministers respectively for defence, tele- communications and police — and foe deputy defence minis- ter. Ronnie Kasrils, were seeking amnesty.
Some ANC leaders have ar- gued that veterans of the ANC’s guerrilla army do not need amnesty for actions that were part of “a Just war”.
President Nelson Mandela extended the cut-off date for amnesty yesterday, making people who committed politi- cal crimes any time before bis inauguration as president on May 10 1994 eligible. The pre- vious cut-off date was Decem- ber 6 1993. when a multiracial transitional panel was formed to end white rule.
What Mr Mandela described as "one of the most difficult decisions I have had to take" followed pressure by his foes and allies.
Bishop Desmond Tutu, the chairman of the commission, had asked for extensions to allow more people to be included.
The Freedom Front leader, Cons land Vfljoen, once com- mander of apartheid armed forces, wanted the date moved so that amnesty could be con- sidered for white extremist bombers convicted of killing at least 21 people in foe run- up to the all-race elections In April 1994, and others who plotted a coup at foe time of foe poll.
He was “delighted” by the extension and would be apply- ing for amnesty for acts of resistance before the elections.
The extension will also cover the fetal shooting of eight people by ANC security guards during a Zulu demon- stration in March 1994.
Mr Mandela also extended the deadline for applications for amnesty — which was due to expire at midnight tonight — until May 10 1997.
Ruaridh Nicoll adds from Jo hannesburg: Dr Allan Boesak, former head of the World Council of Churches and am- bassador-designate to the UN, is to return to South Africa from foe US to stand trial on fraud and theft charges relat- ing to missing Danish aid. As an anti-apartheid campaigner, he convinced the world’s reformed churches to declare apartheid a heresy.
Tanzania forces out Hutu refugees
Chris— cQrcal to Johannesburg
Tanzanian troops drove tens of thou- sands of Rwandan Hutu refugees towards their homeland yesterday after preventing them from fleeing deeper into Tanzania and sealing off camps which the government wants closed before the end of foe month.
Several thousand refugees crossed into Rwanda, but many more refused, storming a military, cordon in an effort to get back into foe camps. Large numbers are still walk- ing towards Zambia. Malawi and Kenya in an attempt to escape repatriation.
Since Thursday -about 400,000 refugees have left the camps which have been their home for more than two years.
„ Yesterday soldiers turned back about 50.000 Rwandans who had fled Benaco camp.
Tanzanian army Colonel Urbano Nguvumall told refu- gees at a roadblock between Benaco and Lumasi that they would not be allowed to go any further into Tanzania.
“Go hack to foe camps and you will get fed," he said. "We don’t want you here. We want yon to go back/the colonel said.
But when the refugees ap- proached Benaco. soldiers told them they could not re- enter and ordered them to keep walking to Rwanda.
Although several thousand gave up and returned to their homeland, many more tried to break through the army cordon around the camp. Hundreds dropped their bun- dles of belongings on foe roadside and sprinted across vegetable fields to reach Benaco.
Soldiers wielding sticks kept others at bay. Tens of thousands more were turned back at other roadblocks. But last night it was unclear how
many are still on the move.
and in which direction.
The exodus from the camps appears to have been orga- nised. Refugee leaders duped the United Nations into be- lieving the Rwandans were going to cross foe border in an attempt to ensure that they received their fortnightly ration of red beans, corn and
‘It is clear that the militias have spooked the refugees’
cooking oil before they left. Many refugees prepared for the march by harvesting crops and selling off their be- longings to Tanzanians.
‘They have fooled us in- credibly.” said Anne Willem Bljleveld, who was in charge of the UN plan to entice foe
refugees home.
UN officials said they be- lieved the refugees were now heading back voluntarily to their camps because they were no longer under foe con- trol of the extremist Hutu mi- litias which led the 1994 genocide.
“It’s clear that the [Hutu militants] have spooked the refugees, and they are using these people as shields,” said Peter Kessler, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in NairobL
But whether the militias
are in control or not, many refugees appear reluctant to return to their homeland. The 50,000 from Benaco who turned back yesterday only did so when confronted by Tanzanian soldiers. And most appeared to want to return to their camps, not to Rwanda.
The Tanzanian home af- fairs minister. Ali Ameir Mohamed, said his govern- ment still expected all Rwan-
dan refugees to leave by to
end of the year. The UNHG has backed that demand, d< spite criticism that i amounts to an illegal force repatriation.
Most of the refugees wh began fleeing their camps o Thursday were going to th hills of the Burigi Gam Reserve, where they will ez counter wildlife includin lions and elephants. A spoke; women for the World Foo Programme. Michele Quiz taglie, said wild animal could pose a threat to th refugees, but pointed out the some refugees had alread; been hiding in the park fo more than two years.
“These people have beei living outside their countr since 1994.” she said '"They're survivors."
The first group of Rwan dans fleeing Tanzania arrive in Zambia yesterday afte crossing Lake Tanganyika The UNHCR said it believe many more were following.
6 WORLD MEWS
H -test sailors find a voice
The Guardian Saturday December 14 1996
Moscow basks in snowless Indian summer
The decision by New Zealand’s government to fund a lawsuit by servicemen exposed to British atomic tests in the 1 950s could provoke a diplomatic furore.
Ed Vulliamy reports
THE New Zealand government agreed yesterday to fund a class action lawsuit planned by ex-ser- vicemen exposed to British atomic bomb tests in the South Pacific during the late 1950s.
The decision delighted Brit- ish and New Zealand bomb- test victims, who have cam- paigned for 39 years for compensatory pensions. But there is a twist: leaders of New Zealand’s veterans were unsure early this morning whether the lawsuit would now advance against the gov- ernment In Wellington which is funding it or against the British government thereby creating a diplomatic storm.
Roy Sefton, chairman of the New Zealand Nuclear Test Veterans' Association, said: "We are delighted because after four decades our cause is being treated seriously. So
New Zealand’s initiative contrasts ironically with the situation of British ex-servicemen
far, our petitions have been against the NZ government But now it seems logical that we are being offered money to sue the British."
About '600 New Zealand navy personnel were present at up to nine hydrogen bomb tests, mainly at Christmas and Malden Islands in 1957 and 1958. Many sailors had radiation bums when they returned to New Zealand, and have died or leukaemia and other cancers at a rate up to five times higher than the general population.
Several have fathered handicapped and deformed children; other children have contracted adult strains of cancer.
The campaign for special pensions stems from the refusal of past New Zealand governments to place the crews on pensions because they did not consider cancer a service injury. Now, the vet- erans are being paid by that same government to pursue their claim, against Britain If they choose.
Apart from being what New Zealand's high commissioner in London. John Collin ge, called "a novel move”, the
plan is a challenge to the Brit- ish government and Ministry of Defence. British ex-service- men exposed to the bomb tests are trying to put their government on trial in Stras- bourg, having been snubbed in Britain. A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said last night: "Obviously we can- not comment- on New Zea- land. There are no plans for any such thing by us”.
Yesterday's initiative was I an extraordinary first result of the opening parliamentary session of the new coalition government between the New Zealand First party of Win- ston Peters and the National Party.
NZ First had argued that the government should hind H-bomb test veterans in pur- suit of their claim. Mr Peters, now deputy prime minister, was reported to favour an in- ternational action against Britain.
On Thursday. Mr Peters said he “had an agreement with the National [Party] to finance a class action for all of those people who were a victim of the Christmas Island nuclear testing."
The New Zealand veterans concerned were in the weather observation frigates Pukaki and RotoitL Their rep- resentatives say both vessels were 25 miles from “ground zero" when the blasts were detonated.
The veterans' association has campaigned vocally for maximum compensation, sur- veying veterans for signs of irradiation and genetic prob- lems in offspring. Three strains of cancer appeared at above average rates: multiple myeloma, leukaemia and | polycythemia rubra vera.
“If 6 damn good news,” said Sen Brake, one of the 600 who claim they were exposed to nuclear fallout He said a suc- cessful class action would address injustices harboured by many veterans and wid- ows and put an end to the po- litical sidestepping of veter- ans' health issues.
New Zealand's initiative contrasts sharply and ironi- cally with the situation of British ex-servicemen ex- posed to the H-bomb tests.
In 1993 the National Radio- logical Protection Board said there was no evidence that veterans of atmospheric nu- clear weapons tests were at increased risk of cancer.
On August 16 1994 the chief executive of the war pensions agency, Peter Matheson, fur- ther infuriated British veter-
The first official picture of Britain's first H-bomb test off Christmas Island in the Pacific in May 1957. Now, with Binding from Wellington, New Zealand veterans exposed to nuclear fallout may be able to sue the British government
ans by writing a letter to the Labour MP Doug Hoyle which said: "The Secretary of State has decided that the normal policy will be to reject any claim now for a war pension for multiple myeloma but to accept any new claim in respect of leukaemia if the test participants developed the condition within 25 years of first participation."
British veterans have taken
three test cases to the Euro- pean Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, including tf serviceman's daughter who contracted acute myeloid leu- kaemia — an adult strain — at the age of four. Leading the action is Ken McGinley. who witnessed five bomb tests and was pensioned out of the navy with a duodenal ulcer a year later. '
He said from his home in
Renfrewshire, Scotland, last night: “We are delighted about what has been done for the New Zealanders. We give fUIl support to the action taken by the New Zealand government, and wish the veterans good luck In their pursuit of justice.”
The European Commission of Human Rights ruled that the British veterans’ case Is admissible, and that the Brit-
ish government has a case to answer. On December 6 1995 the commission cleared the way for a full review of the exposure of British service- men to radiation. The judg- ment also ordered a review of the Government’s "attempts to defeat war '^pensions claim* by withholding vital military medical records from service- men”, the veterans’ lawyer, Ian Anderson, said.
Da»M Heanrt In Moscow
SPRING onions are sprouting. Worms arc wriggling in the warm soiL Ice rinks are black patches of scrubland and the streets resound to the rasp of rollerskates. Ice fishermen look mournfully
at the unfrozen Moscow river racing past.
It is mid-December and still no snow. So £ hr, this month — and November be- fore it — have proved the mildest since Hydromet. the Russian weather cen- tre, began taking measure- ments 117 years ago. To be precise, it has been 5.3C warmer In European Rus- sia than the average No- vember temperature of mi- nus 1-9C.
And where is the clean white snow to caver the filth of Moscow’s streets? The laCk of snow has also broken all records. To count as serious snow — and Russians are serious about their snow — it has to lie on the ground for five days. There have been sleet, hail and snow Hur- ries, but no “real snow”.
The unusual weather has made Russia’s weathermen take a distinctly anti-West- ern stance- Anatoli Yakov- lev, their spokesman, blamed a warm current of air from the central Atlantic.
Farmers are predicting the failure of crops sown in the autumn. Without snow to protect them, the seed- lings will die in the next hard frost.
Looking on the bright side. Igor Nazarov, deputy director of the Institute of Global Climate and Ecolo- gy, Is predicting a rosy future for Russia. “In 50 years time the volume of greenhouse gases will double. Permafrost, which occupies 58 per cent of the territory, will start to melt. In the central part of Rus- sia good conditions will ap-
pear for agriculture, while there will be drought in the
United States and it will be
lOOOi
Oleg and his daughter Annva nrc equally happy. They have a %-oraciuus pet rabbit sharing their two- room Moscow fiat and the Fresh grass from tin* park is much cheaper than the American pet food.
Anna Ivanovna, aged 69, Is one or an army of clean- ers who spend the winter scrapping and hacking at the Ice and walls of snow In courtyards. She is still
Streets are not being cleaned at all. It’s certainly cheaper’
gaily sweeping away leavos from staircase entrances.
But Alexander Timo- feyev. deputy bead of the Moscow road sweeping de- partment. is on 24-hour alert. “We can’t begin the winter clean ins »»f the town because there is no snow, and we can't continue washing the streets with water, because one frost and it will be a skating rink. But nor can we brush the streets, because the frost makes the dirt stick to the roads.**
In other words, the streets arc not being cleaned at all. "It's cer- tainly cheaper," Mr Timo- feyev said.
But ordinary Russians are most shaken by the fresh mushrooms on sale in the market. A woman from Kaluga, about 60 miles south of Moscow, sold some in the capital's Butirskl market.
A fellow trader, who had only dried mushrooms for sale, said: “Sure, old wom- an. The ones you have got come from Chernobyl."
New hunt begins for bodies of missing Belgian children
Bert Lauwers bi Brussels
■BELGIAN police acting on Refresh information began a new hunt yesterday in the southern town of Charleroi for the bodies of children who have gone missing in the past seven years, who may be vic- tims of a paedophile ring.
Commander Johan Dewin- ne, who heads the Gendar- merie’s body identification team, said the police were looking for several bodies. He was more hopeful or finding victims than during a search in October, based on Informa- tion from Marc Dutroux — the chief suspect and a con- victed child rapist — which found nothing.
Police searched a scrap metal yard, towing away sev- eral car wrecks, but focused attention on four huuses whose basements might In' linked to an underground tunnel.
The VTM television station said that Dutroux and his second wife Michelle Martin had once lived in one of the houses. It added that guns had been found yesterday.
A police spokesman said the searches had stopped at nightfall but would resume at daybreak today.
Belgium has been in shock since August when Dutroux and several alleged accom- plices were arrested. Dutroux subsequently led police to the bodies of four girls. — Reuter.
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News in brief
OSCE ‘cannot verify Serbian elections’
Yugoslavia invited
Europe’s security forum yesterday to send a delegation to Belgrade to diannaa dis- puted local elections in Ser- bia, but officials said the terms of the invitation meant it would be unable to verify the results of the polls.
The Organisation for Secu- rity and Co-operation In Europe welcomed a request from the Yugoslav foreign minister, Milan Milutinovic,
to obtain what he called "true information” on the elections, which took place nearly a month ago.
But the OSCE chief spokes- woman, Melissa Fleming, said that nowhere in the let- ter was the body called on to check the results of the elec- tions, in which, the Zajedno opposition said, the socialists suffered their worst defeat in 50 years of unbroken rule. — Reuter.
Kuwaiti prince meets Pope
"THE Crown Prince of Kn-
I wait — which unlike Saudi Arabia allows Chris- tian churches on its terri- tory — met the Pope at the Vatican yesterday for what were described as cordial talks.
The audience with Sheikh Saad al-Abdnlla al- Sabah was the first such meeting since 1969, when Kuwait became the first Gulf Arab state to establish diplomatic relations with the Vatican.
The Kuwaiti news agency, KUNA, said earlier this month that Kuwait had approved a Vatican request to open an embassy. Vati- can interests in Kuwait and other Gulf states are cur- rently represented by its ambassador to Lebanon.
The Pope’s foreign minis- ter, Monsignor Jean-Lonis Tauran, who visited Ku- wait last month, has com- pared religions freedom in Kuwait favourably with “other situations in the region''. The country has a Catholic community of 100,000, mainly foreign workers. — Reuter.
Iran ‘arming Hizbullah’
IRAN is sending at least three consignments of arms In Boeing 747s to Syria each mouth for shipment to the
Hizbullah miitria in Lebanon in an effort to upgrade the arms used by its allies. Penta- gon and United States Intelli- gence sources said.
The consignments contain some humanitarian supplies but are dominated by weapons, including Russian- made Sagger anti-tank mis- siles. used by Hizbullah against Israel in the past two months. -
Israeli intelligence says that Hizbullah is also receiv- ing Katyusha rockets. They have been modified by Iran to increase their range to £ miles — far enough to strike Haifa, Israel’s third largest city.
Iran’s consignments are now “very intense”, accord- ing to the Pentagon, and mark a significant increase in sup- ply lines to Hizbullah sinra Is- rael’s 16-day Grapes of Wrath offensive against the Leba- nese militia in April.
Iranian diplomats have de- nied the allegations. — Los Angeles Times.
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The Guardian Saturday December 14 1996
Edward Blishen
OBITUARIES 7
With candour
and charm
E
| D WARD Blishen, who has died of cancer aged 76. was ■a terrific charmer, Iwith his faun-looka — eyes steadily transmitting mischief under those astonish- ing, slightly diabolical eye- brows — and warm light voice.
He was a Charmer as a broadcaster and writer, just as much as in his social encoun- ters, and it may have that his reputation as a writer actually suffered a little with a certain kind of reader because of it. Especially in his later work, it sometimes generated an odd atmosphere, a bit manic, a bit anxious around the edges of extraordinarily gifted and emotionally randift autobiographical writing which ought to be firmly in- stalled in whatever English pantheon there might be for brave autob iographers .
Having said that, I should add that most of these books were loved by some of his best contemporaries among Brit- ish writers, for their acknowl- edged craft but not least as a special bonus, an extension of the company of the clever, quizzical man they so much epjoyed. William Trevor and Beryl Balnbridge were two of them; the poet P J Kavanagh another.
Sony Dad (1978) is probably the volume which most read- ers who didn't bridle at the charm will remember and cherish best Blishen’s own particular Father and Son for a lower middle-class suburban English childhood of the 1920s and 1930s. “Dick" Blishen, teased for his bowler hat by his more easy-going hand- working brothers, was a minor civil servant seriously philistine and deeply upset by the cuckoo of a son who spends more and more of his time listening to classical music, reading Lawrence and Huxley and everything else ambitions he could lay his hands on, and generally giv- ing himself would-be dashing
airs of intellect and style.
It is not an unfamiliar tale of its time, made extraordi- nary by the combination of sublety in the writing and emotional candour with
which Edward -recovered the intense and hafffcd feelings of
them both (after a particularly
scornful paternal outburst, the son retired at speed to his bed — and diary — shouting ■Til kill you! HI km you!)- It also balances perfectly the recovered emotional world of the rune- and 13-year-old with
what the author In his fifties can see as he looks
These autobiographies alone are a large body of valu- able work, mare than enough for the oeuvre of many writ- ers. but they are hardly the half of Blishen’s, which in- cluded serious editing and compiling of dictionaries and anthologies of writing for the young, a decade and a half of important work fin- the BBC’s African service, and years of intelligent and unsnobbiah lit- erary broadcasting on Radio 4’s A Good Read and elsewhere.
Even such a list is to leave
charge of labour politics and much else. Probably John An- derson was the midwife to his first Guardian deliveries, and Edward repaid the compli- ment with a shrewd and amusing little portrait of his old hero on this page much later.
As a conscientious objector he Spent a cold and often pretty miserable war working on the land; see A Cackhanded War (1972) for the details, which Included a Landlady who for a time pamperlngly mothered Blishen arid three other “commie" mudlarks hut still kept a vase with four white feathers on her mantel- piece. At another tma, the nights were often spent, as Norman Shrapnel noted in his review, “defending his soul from the designs of the Partic- ular People, Exclusive Breth- ren and other religious enthu- siasts who shared his hostel dormitory.”
The landlady for a time pamperingly mothered Blishen and three other “conchie” mudlarks but still kept a vase with four white feathers on her mantelpiece
out the twaetimg which occu- pied him in his thirties and the funny, humane, ground- breaking writing about it which was where many older readers of this newspaper first name across him. I am not sure, but 1 think the sketches he wrote about the unfamiliar — to much of the British read- ing classes — world of the postwar secondary modern school on the Manchester Guardian's Miscellany page, were his first creative pub- lished work.
I say creative to take ac- count erf the no doubt still not quite ordinary writing he did for the weekly newspaper he joined at the age of 17 an leaving Barnet's Queen Eliza- beth Grammar SchOOL It was there that he met, and was much Impressed by, that bril- liant journalist JRL Ander- son who by the time 1 arrived at the Guardian was estab- lished as an assistant editor in
Another latte: autobiograph- ical instalment A Nest Qf Teachers (I960) remembers the time that followed at IsLeden Emergency Teachers Training College f“What we have to learn to do’, said Mr Trellis on the second morning, is open the windows in the souls of the children we teach’ ”)> and three years of prep school toar>img_ fortified by tin* com- pany of his wife Kate. (In absolutely real life Nancy.)
Given his insight- into his own childhood and his pass- sionate writerly curiosity about whatever the world pre- sented to him, he must have been a marvellous teacher, as most readers of Roaring Boys (IKS) could not have doubted. This was his first book based on his Guardian pieces and the one which began to estab- lish hhn both as a writer and as a recorder of what another good writer and educational explorer, the Late Brian Jack-
son, called the “ordinary world of ordinary children, growing up in ordinary cities in postwar Britain,” territory at that time less explored than the world of New Guinea tribesmen.
It showed already in abun- dance the qualities, beyond the large gift of words, that those of us who admired hhn
and loved him and his work most valued; “tenderness «thI ordinariness’' as Brian Jack- son called it, a tender valuing of the ordinary, which is rarely such, an ordinary thins after an it wan hrg particular way of being an artist in life, which is part cf what gives many of his autobiographical instalments the dense, imagi- native feel of good fiction.
W L Webb
Pa
wilt»« About
the tfmft that Roaring Boys was published I used to meet Edward Blishen in radio studios, when I was a producer. I once congratulated ntm on bis calmness In but of the microphone. He said he learned In the classroom never to show fear.
He did not just survive his tough teaching; he appreciated it He became a civilising influence on fthiidrftn of all sorts in what was a bleak period. His reviews and talks and tiw» anthologies he edited, of prose and poetry, held up a standard cf what shrmiri he provided.
I remember bis part in a discussion on some narrative writing by two different children, one had a sophisticated style, with rich vocabulary and complex constructions. People praised this and, contrary wise, criticised the other narrative for its almost perverse plainness. Edward sprung to the defence of the writer — a girl — by pointing out that this was Just in a different English literary tradition. CoDCduszvdy, he referred his colleagues to Btmyan.
It may seem a pity that Edward never wrote his own
flftlnn for nhlMifu, He did
however collaborate with Leon Garfield on two books of Greek myths. The God
Edward Blishen . . . a tender valuing of the ordinary
Beneath The Sea (1970) and The Golden Shadow (1972). The first won them jointly the Carnegie Medal for an outstanding work of literature for children. And it is a tribute to Edward’s sweetness of temper and the depth of his intelligence that he could so successfully collaborate with Garfield, a close Mend but aim a headlong genius.
Sim Roberts adds: I had been producing A. Good Read for
Radio 4 since 1989 and in 1990 we wanted someone new to present it. I knew of Edward Blishen through his work for the World Service and we met for the first time in the down- stairs coffee bar of the Royal Festival Hall. This really striking nmn with wonderful eyebrows turned up. He was immediately engaging with a genuine enthusiasm for liter- ature — he loved books and he communicated that joy of words not in an academic way but in a booklover’s way.
Working on that first series with him was a complete plea- sure. He would go off and read four books and be able to quote whole sections, pulling quoteB out of his head. As a broadcaster he was absolutely one of the best His enthusi- asm for the subject came over on radio in a way that made you listen. He loved the pro- gramme and everyone who met him loved him.
When I saw him for the final time last week he said, “You know, when you are
PHOTOGRAPH: ELIZABETH BAXTER
dying you realise that so many things are about the future.” He was getting people who called to read Daoid Copperfield to him. He derived absolute joy from hearing passages of Dickens and would laugh his head off. Blishen was a natural racon- teur and story-teller and that’s what made him such a good broadcaster.
Edward Blishen, writer, teacher and broadcaster, bom April 29, 1920; died December 13. 1996
John Hardbattle
The Khwe’s champion
JOHN Hardbattle, who has died of cancer aged 51, straddled worlds so different that he had no □temporary. The son of an igiish settler-farmer in Bo- vana and a Khwe or Bush- in mother, his background ve him an insight into tbe 3 rid of the Bushmen and to the wider world, and the ility to be at home in both. > used bis unique position become a spokesman and ider without equal among e Khwe of Botswana in eir fight to protect their ids from encroachment by rtler formers.
His fether was a former ty of London policeman 10 had bought a fern in lanzi, Botswana, and at the e of 62 fell in love with a 16- ar-old Khwe woman. John ts their second child. Through his mother, he ew the harsh, marginal and en hunger-filled world of s Khwe, the indigenous
people erf southern Africa, whose numbers have been slashed by more than three centuries erf encroachment on to land on which they have hunted, gathered and occa- sionally raised livestock. De- spite the utopian portrayal of them In films such as The Gods Must Be Crazy, and tbe writings of Sir Laurens van der Post, most Khwe today struggle for survival on tbe social, economic and political margins of the modern states that have subsumed them. It was these struggles that Hard- battle addressed and which took him from the Kalahari to the World Bank, the United Nations, Europe and North America.
Having spent tbe first 16 years of his life In Ghanzi, John and his siblings were sent to Britain In 1961 to be educated. He became an in- dentured apprentice diesel irm^hanift in Yorkshire, be- fore Joining tbe British Army.
John Hardbattle . . . T am a man of two worlds’
He served on the Rhine for three-and-a-half years. But de- spite enjoying Army life, his yearning for home was stran- ger and in 1975 he bought himself out and returned to hit family form In Ghanzd.
Hardbattle returned at a critical time for the Khwe. The government of the now independent Botswana was
opening up land previously used by Khwe for commercial cattle ranching. Settlements were also being created by the government to encourage the semi-nomadic tribespeople to become sedentary. Social ten- sions and conflicts abounded in these settlements as the Khwe, lumped together with little regard for linguistic and
dialect divisions, struggled to cope with the enforced changes in their way of life.
The egalitarian and hetero- geneous nature of the Khwe. united only in their common marginalisation by their neighbours in almost all spheres of life, militated against the emergence of lead- ers to articulate their needs.
Few have any formal educa- tion beyond primary school, so Hardbattle, tall, dark- haired, with a slight cock cf the head and a magnetic smile, quietly assumed the leadership of the Khwe. He helped set up Ghanzi craft, which marketed Khwe handi- crafts and kept Khwe mate- rial culture alive, as well as providing a much-needed in- come to the producers.
However beneficial such initiatives were, they did nothing to address govern- ment development pro- grammes which virtually ig- nored Khwe culture and loss of access to land. In 1992, Hardbattle was asked by sev- eral fellow Khwe to set up an organisation to address these Issues. He was chosen, he ex- plained, because: "As they fold me, 1 can sit at the fire of my mother's people, and get up and sit at the table of my father’s people, since 1 am a man of two worlds.’’
So Kgeikani Kweni, or First People of the Kalahari, was formed, with him as its chair- man. He had personally expe- rienced the discrimination and loss of dignity, culture and rights that the Khwe had suffered. He once explained: “I remember as a child run- ning away from anthropolo- gists who came from Wits University [Johannesburg] to measure me and look at me because they couldn’t believe
that white people, ‘real people’, could breed with the Bushmen.”
One of Kgeikani Kweni’s main challenges has been to restore a sense of dignity to Khwe. When asked last year what request he would make on behalf of bis people if he met the President of Bot- swana. Hardbattle’s response was: “I would ask him to give the Khwe people the respect that they deserve. Respect is the [basic] thing Khwe people feel they are not getting as citizens erf this country.”
IN October 1993, at a confer- ence of Khwe from Bo- tswana and Namibia, they held the stage, many under the umbrella of Kgeikani Kweni. The Khwe addressed political leaders, not only in Gaborone, the capital of Bo- tswana, but also in London, Copenhagen, New York, Washington and elsewhere.
On such occasions. Hard- battle rarely spoke alone. He usually translated, into beau- tiful English, the words of fellow Khwe elders whose elo- quence was unappreciated by the western world because cf their lack of English. His gentleness, charisma and non-confrontational charac- ter won him many friends in the West, including the Ford Foundation, Summit. Sur- vival International in Britain and the International Work
Group for Indigenous Affairs in Dermark. On a trip to this country last June, he met Prince Charles, through whom he secured the dona- tion of a Land Rover for Kgei- kani Kweni.
The catapulting of the Khwe to national and Inter- national attention the Botswana government un- easy. Hardbattle was sum- moned, with other Khwe lead- ers, by government officials and, be claimed, threatened. However, the government could not simply declare him a prohibited immigrant, as they have in the past to expa- triates who have spoken out on behalf of the Khwe.
When he was challenged last year on the perception of many officials in Botswana that he was a “troublema- kee", he replied: “Of course I am a troublemaker. In that I am fighting for the rights of my people.”
In the often bleak horizon of the Khwe in Botswana, he gave hope. The growth of opti- mism, pride and dignity, al- beit slight and scattered, among the Khwe of Botswana is due in no small measure to Hardbattie's unique contribu- tion to their cause.
Metiael Taylor
John Qace Hardbattle, political activist, bom August 4, 1945: died November 12. 1996
Face to Faith
Why the nativity is just a curiosity to Jews
ShinuelBoMch
tthe Jews, respect for other man’s religion,
jecially the Christian
not confined to modern w enlightened liberal- iraonides wrote almost nium ago that Chris- iad significantly as- i “perfecting tbe worid litating the religious
t of God on the part of
h*s inhabitants”
mity.be argued, had
b world with the knowl-
. ..i.«haavtsnt
SC luctw UO *»■ —
lespread and have
ideas* to the ferthest
n amongst pagan
» that they now de- dlscuss Godly ideas
rortls of tbe Bible."
ure. although it was which spawned two it
ua iuiy
ess in disseminating
the knowledge of God. As a
member of a people whose principal Biblical prerogative is to serve as "a light unto the nations," I am at once grateful and envious of this Christian achievement But amidst tbe mutual
respect which Christians and
Jews warmly accord one an- other in this new era of under-
stajHling, it becomes neces- sary at this festive time of year
to explain why Jews do not participate even in national *nd secular celebrations of
Christmas and the nativity. Even the erstwhile and much
fobled “Chanukah Bush” — the kosher Jewish version of
the Christmas tree —can be fband in very few Jewish
homes because of its Christo-
logical overtones.
For the Jewish nation there
exist simple bdiefe whichhave been deeply Ingrained into the Jewish psyche. Foremost ammag these is the staple be- lief that no man could ever be
God- Judaism came to replace paganism with ethical mono- theism: tta worship of all too visible personalities and ob- jects was replaced by the wor- ship of the invisible, and indi- visible God who lies veiled behind nature.
Judaism established div- isions within empirical exis- tence: between the holy and
mundane, animal and human life, and the Sabbath and the rest of the week. But the stron- gest division it established is that between “Creator” and “created," or more appropri- ately, between God and man. The Hebrew word for “holy” is kadosh, which literally trans- lates as separate or distinct
God is holy by virtue of the feet
that He is completely divorced
from anything remotely human. Ancient pagan wor- ship and Greek mythology is
replete with reference to human deities, but the Hebrew Bible assures us that God is
irtteriy transcendent and has
no form. Maimonldes devoted four cf the 13 Cardinal Articles of the Jewish faith towards proving that God was Incorpo- real and could therefore have no body, was eternal and there- fore couM never die. He alone was to be worshipped and
therefore no prophet could ever claim to be the deliverer cfhis own message. The idea that a man could be God is anathema to the very essence ofjodaism.
IT IS for this reason that amidst all its ccdomful splendour — the radiant lights on the shopping streets, the heart-warming cards, the familiar image (rf Santa Claus — Christmas is largely ig- nored by Jews. It is not only that many of the Christmas celebrations as embraced by Pope Gregory in 354 involve a Christian absorption, of earlier pagan rites, such as the cele- bration of the winter solstice and the coming of spring, or the Roman pagan festival erf Saturnalia, which honoured the god of the harvest, or the northern European winter fes- tival ofYule which was cele- brated with giant logs
trimmed with greenery and ribbons. Rather, it is specifi- cally the nativity which cele- brates the emergence of God from a mortal womb which is so foreign to us.
I am well aware that we Jews have our own practices which tnthu nninHiateri will seem irrational, and yet. as I walk through Christmas shop- ping maTk I ask myself “Is it possible that the child held so lovingly in Mary's arms Is really revered as the Creator of heaven and earth?"
I suspect that questions such as these remain the principal reason why amidst consider- able effort throughout the cen- turies Christianity has had negligible success in convert- ing Jews to a belief in Jesus. The nativity , in which we are asked to accept that wise men came from afar to worship at the feet of a child who was God, remains nothing mom than an item of curiosity for Jews.
The dividing line separating God and man is immutable and eternal, and for us there could be no greater heresy than for a man to declare himself to be, or ever be worshipped as. a deity. This is not to say that Jews do not have a profound respect for believing Chrifr tians. But tt does serve to ex- plain the uncompromising na- ture ofthe Jewish rejection of the nativity.
Rabbi Shmuel Boteach continues our Advent series by non-Christians reflecting on Christmas. He Is director of Oxford’s L’Chaim Society.
Weekend Birthdays
Imagine Jane Blrlan (50 today) in a Colette story, maybe called This English Bird. A girl from a good school would he loosed into freedom by crossing the Channel and being taken up by an adored national outrage, Serge Gains- bourg: he would find her in movie forces with titles like
Mustard Gets Dp My Nose and, by desiring her flagrantly, make all of France want her, too. Daughters by three fathers wouM be described, the grand- child. ..then on the last page she would be cast as Androma- che, survivor of tite Trojan Wars about to be enslaved, ex- iled. ‘ T saw her,” Colette would have written, “in the passage between dressing rooms, with
melancholy wrapped about
her like the erfipe kimonos we wore backstage. Serge was dead . and so was her father, the war-time hero — she had bought a house in Plnisfere just where he landed bis gun- boat on Christmas Day 1943 to pick Up Allied airmen- She still sang Serge’s songs though the romance was over long before he expired She grinned at me: how the suggestiveness of that gap between her front teeth had increased! I remember her as a young gamine, how she used to say *the only excite- ment inlife is to be wanted’. "
7’otfcrv 5 other birthdays: Vijay
Amrltrad, tennis player, 43; Carol Browner, director, US Environmental Protection Agency, 41; Jill Johnes, econ- omist 34; Barbara Leigh- Hunt actress, 61; Alberto Morrocco, painter, 79; Cecil Payne, saxophonist. 74; Dame Roth Railton, founder. National Youth Orchestra. 81; Stan Smith, tennis champion. 50; Clark Terry. ja2z trum- peter, 7ft Rosalyn Tureck. conductor and writer, 82; Chris Waddle, footballer, 36-
Tomorrow's birthdays ; Michael Bogdanov, film and stage director, 58; Dave dark, drummer and pop group founder, 54; Don Johnson, ac- tor 47; Gen Sir Frank Kitson, counter-insurgency expert, 7ft
The Rev Dr Una Kroll, physi- cian. writer, feminist. TL Oscar Niemeyer, architect, f»; Edna O’Brien, novelist, 60; Commandant Anne Spen- cer, director, WRNS, 58; Prof Sir John Menrie Thomas. FRS, master, Peterhouse Col- lege, Cambridge, 64; Prof Maurice Wilkins, FRS, Nobel prize-winning biophysicist. 80.
Death Notices
*-« m^mww wmm%a wvwiB* (Ml I2ttl DflC bar 1BU. pneafutty a hum. toad
Teacher. writer. broadcaster, daub. to
Husband. Father. Granoiamar and Fr*
Cremation at H-D0ora on Friday Decani
20th. St Marytabone Crematorium. East
Rood. RnchSay. Donation* In memory
Tha North London Hospice. via toa vu
taken. JA Claric S Son. im Wbod Str Barnet.
COLE MoSy, 75. wa llkod her a tod c
painlessly en lha 10th ol Docamt
Humanlta farewells st Honour Oak ere
tortum SEr. on dia lBm ol Pecewtoet
3tepm. No Rowers. donations n ,
{wound cf Jofie and lather ol TWt
Tma and Minna. No will be ore
mtasail Funeral Ulrica to be hSa
Qaldere Breen Crematorium, East chi
on Thursday UMi December at 2.45pm JjowarfcDawdtan# If wished to Crisis m 377 0489}. 1
MOWS* on Tuesday Docamher lDth i
Birthdays
CAROL** HARVEY, te a today, mam Jggji returns tor tomorrow. Lots «f b£j[
~*t f
^ •• > r
IMSuardian
Saturday December 14 1996
Edition Number 46,736
119 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3ER
Fax No. 0171-8374530
E-mail: letters@guardian.co.uk
Website: http://www.guardian.co.uk
Enter the euro
But will it get residential status?
YESTERDAY — male p. no mistake — marked a vital milestone along the tortuous road to monetary union for Europe. First, and most important from the point of view of ordinary people, it was the day when years of rhetoric were suddenly made flesh — in the form of specimen notes of the proposed euro which will almost certainly become the sole currency for a core of European countries in a little over five years time — irrespective of whether Britain joins or not The euro is no longer a figment of the imagination: now, for the first time, there is something to see.
Predictably, the embedded symbolism of the designs (bridges, windows and doors) was interpreted in contra- dictory ways according to the prejudices of the be- holder. They reminded Eurosceptic Sir Teddy Taylor that the single currency was a gateway to mass unemployment a window to misery and a bridge to civil unrest to another critic, lain Duncan-Smith the note was “an unwelcome child that nobody really wants to own”. But if it looks more like a changeling than change, this is because it was, inevitably, designed by a committee determined to avoid offence rather than entering something for the Turner Prize. But to Euro- philes the images are on a different plane: they are windows of opportunity, bridges of reconciliation and gateways to a new age in which the member states of a united Europe will never again go to war with each other and will instead bind themselves together in peace by sharing that most powerful of all social cements — a common currency.
The second reason yesterday’s unveiling was impor- tant is this. Even if Britain doesn’t join the single currency it won’t be able to avoid it Sooner or later it will invade Britain. People will start to take out euro- denominated plastic cards when they visit Europe: some will want euro-savings accounts: others will want their mortgages backed by the “strong” euro — which may lead to some salaries being paid in euros in order to avoid having to repay a mortgage in a strong currency (the euro) out of wages paid in what might be a depreciating one (sterling) Companies like BMW which by then will be paying all their Continental subsidiaries in euros will probably be only too happy to offer similar facilities to its Rover employees in Britain. By that time shops like Tesco and Sainsbury — thanks to advances in electronic money — win be able to accept payments in either currency- In other words, if a core group of EU members, as seems likely, goes ahead with monetary union the whole European monetary scene will be changed whether we like it our not At the very least everyone in Britain will have the choice whether to accept the euro or not as individuals even if at the national level the government of the day rejects it
The third reason yesterday was important was that a deal appears to have been struck on the socalled “stability pact” which removes one of the last remain- ing obstacles to Continental acceptance of monetary union. Under the Maastricht agreement countries are prohibited from allowing their budget deficits to go above a ceiling of 3 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). That will affect British economic policy even if the UK doesn’t sign up because the Maastricht criteria will become the standard, by which the international markets judge British economic policy whether we are in or out of the stogie currency. The problem is that if one or more countries deride to let their deficits rise to 4 or S per cent of GDP then the burden of coping with it would tall on other countries who would either have to transfer resources (cash) or suffer higher interest rates. There have to be some penalties but if the original German plan of automatic fines running into billions of pounds on recalcitrant countries had been accepted, it would have risked a massive social backlash in die guilty countries. TO Impose fixed fines on countries with heavy defiicts by forcing them to hand over more money is a bit like treating haemophilia with blodlet- ting- Yesterday’s compromise — with escape clauses for countries in recession at the discretion of the Council of Ministers — has fault-lines of its own (like would the Council ever have the courage to apply sanctions?) but at least it looks as though a formula has been found that may be more acceptable to German public opinion. It remains to be seen whether the increasing likelihood of the single currency going ahead on the mainland of Europe — supported now by the prospect of real euro notes — will start to roll back the increasingly hostile tide of public opinion. The answer is that it probably won’t unless Labour both wins the general election and adopts a sustained strategy for winning the argument.
A minister takes the stage
I READ Maureen Lipman's article with, interest (TV drama shock horror, De- cember 12). The feds are as follows: European Commu- nity Directive 92/100 gives performers in films new ■ rights. Including a right to equitable remuneration when films In which they have per- formed are rented by die public.
To obtain these rights in
respect of any films made
under agreements entered into before July 1, 1994, per- formers need to submit notifi- cations before January 1, 1997 to producers. While it is up to performers to submit notifica- tions, there is no reason.
why this cannot be done on
their be half by professional agents or advisers, or organi- sations such as Equity.
The Regulations imple- menting the Directive were passed by the British Parlia- ment on November 25,1996, after delays caused partly by extensive consultation, in- cluding with Equity. How- ever, the Directive was orig- inally adopted in 1992. It has also been dear since the Regu- lations were fyid in July that the deadline for notifications of the end of the year would be retained. That had also been
indicated in a consultative draft circulated in early 1995 to interested parties, includ- ing Equity. Perform erg and their advisers have, therefore, had same time to prepare for the new rights. We have never considered that the Regul- j ations had to have entered into force before the process of I submitting notifications could begin
I The Government values I highly the contribution made by British performers to the success erf, particularly, i English-language films, and i therefore welcomes the har- monising effect of the “rental'' Directive which will bring , British performers valuable benefits throughout the Community.
Ian Taylor MP.
Minister for Science and Technology.
DTI, l Victoria Street,
London SW1E OET.
MAUREEN Liproan draws attention to the cavalier approach the Government has taken to performers. But this is merely a repeat perfor- mance of the tactics used in legislating for extension of the copyright term last year to life of the author plus 70 years. Extensive consultation did
Vote for a new electoral system
IAN AITKEN says that most advocates of electoral reform do so out of self-in- terest, arguing that Jim Bdger’s National Party lost the New Zealand election but has been let back by Winston Peter’s NZ-First Party through backroom deals (PR turns politics upside-down down under, December 12).
Let's examine thefects. The National Party gained 33£ per cent of the vote, nearly 6 per oent more than its nearest rival, Labour. If we look at the 65 first-past-the-post-seats, the National Party, with its right- wing allies, won 32. At the last FPTP general election in 1993, the National Party won 35.5 per cent and had an abso- lute majority. If NZ-First had gone into coalition with Labour, the critics would have said that the most popular party had been deprived erf power by PR.
Mr Aitken was right that the majority of voters in opin- ion polls preferred an NZ- First/Laboor coalition. One of the problems wife the type of PR used in New Zealand — MMP, also known as the Addi- tional Member System — is that it does not allow the voter to indicate his or her prefer- ence for a coalition govern- ment. This problem would be solved if New Zealand adopted a preferential voting system, such as used in Ireland.
We In Britain should look again at the types of electoral
reform on offer and choose one, not only on the basis of fairness to parties, but also on maxim taing the voter's choice and influence.
Peter Facey.
Development Officer, Electoral Reform Society,
6 Chancel Street,
London SE10UU.
IAN Aitken implies that Britain would be lumbered
with an unpopular, un- elected government if it chose proportional representation. But did it not occur to him that this is what Britain has had for four and a half years.
Instead of eight weeks of ne- gotiations to form an agree- ment between parties (which should entail the publication of a detailed programme for government), Britain has bad years of infighting and power struggles, which may ulti- mately give power to a minor- ity. le the Eurosceptics in the Conservative Party .
Mr Aitken should look to Ireland. The electoral system here may give eight weeks of uncertainty, but can at least be followed by years of rela- tive stability, rather than the other way around.
Eoin O'Malley.
16 Temple Villas,
Palmerstown Road, Dublin?.
We regret we cannot acknowledge receipt of letters. We may edit them: shorter ones are more likely to appear
Let’s foster the carers
THE most worrying aspect I port and financial i of the Social Services In- Often, they have in
■ of the Social Services In- spectorate report (Fostering reviewed after “serious fefl- lngs” found, December 13) is the disclosure that many chil- dren had not had a compre- hensive assessment of their needs. This failure is symp- tomatic of the low priority often given to foster care.
Although two thirds of the children looked after by local authorities are now placed in foster care, the service contin- ues to be the poor relation of the childcare system. Foster carers are expected to provide care for some of our most vul- nerable children and young people, yet they frequently lack adequate training, sup-
port and financial re ward. Often, they have Insufficient information on the children they are expected to care for.
Even where thorough as- sessments are made, there may bean insufficient range of ida cements available to meet each child's needs.
There is a particular shortage of carers for ethnic minority children and sibling groups. Greater emphasis needs to be given to developing recruit- ment strategies based on iden- tified local needs.
Gerxi McAndrew.
Executive Director, National Foster Care Association, Leonard House,
5-7 Marshalsea Road.
London SE IIEP.
take place, albeit belatedly and hurriedly. As with the Statutory Instrument on
rental and lending, so too with term. The latter was passed at breakneck speed just before the summer recess last year so that the UK did not fell foul of
the serious effects of late im- plementation of an EU Direc- tive. Yet the lesson was not learned, or rather the Govern- ment chose not to learn from It The consultation process involved both the stronger and weaker negotiating par- ties bnt inevitably, the stron- ger had the funds to lobby longer and harder.
The SI comes down clearly on the side of the stronger party in two ways. It requires that authors, composers, art- ists and performers give i notice by December 31 ,1996, of
any intention to exercise their 1 right to equitable rem- . une ration where rental arises out of agreements concluded , before July, 1994.
How such notification should be given is not clear, although we assume it is to be in writing. Butaye. as Ms Lip- man suggests, here comes the rub: with mergers, take-overs and production companies folding, against whom should the individual exercise the
right to such remuneration? Onerous expenditure is al- ready being incurred by authors, performers, their agents and associations who may also have to take legal action to resolve the uncertainty-
Once again, the underlying rights owners, without whose
creative Input there would be no cultural heritage, have
been short-changed.
Maureen Duffy.
Chairman. British Copyright Council Copyright House,
29-33 Berners Street,
London WlP 4AA.
mftJfRTTERS, musicians, ■V composers and enter- tainers are the only workers of the world who apparently have the right to be paid over and over again far their work.
Suppose the same principle was applied to other workers or professional people? Be- cause the building an archi- tect designed back in i960, say , is still being used daily without structural alteration, should he be paid a royally by those who enjoy its facilities? FABeaL
21 Gwennyth Street,
Cathays,
Cardiff CE24PH.
THIS' Obs£ HfiS'ist'r (p-ffr Fir^y- r. -7— ■
pLMwcTiAfrr/oH, /router Be i & S'C
PM* P/Z£SC07T
IMd/o 4.
•J {TODAY
Cock-up of the Year 1 996
THE cock-up theory of at- r lar person. If someone can- tempts to rig the Today Per- vasses me to support a part
I tempts to rig the Today Per- sonality of the Year Award is all too plausible (Award chase hands Blair cock-up of the , year, December 13). At I Labour’s conference, I was ap- proached by one ofpeter Man- delson’s ubiquitous Stepford , Children anxious to persuade ! me of the benefits of modern- isation. I mentioned Keir Har- die. “Oh." she squealed, “I
read him m thp rtuarriian
every Saturday.” With politi- cal sophistication like that, anything Iq posaihlp.
Brian BethelL 3 Cherry Drive,
Canterbury. Kent CT2 8HF.
■ AST general election, ■•Labour wrote to me sug- gesting that I vote for its candi- date. My vote was no less valid because somebody had per- suaded me to vote for a particu-
lar person. If someone can- vasses me to support a particu- lar individual in the Today Personality of the Year poll, the decision whether or not to db so is still in my hands. Brian P Moss.
S3 Mill Crescent, Kingsbury, Tam worth, Staffa B782NW.
■VHESE competitions are lu- I dicrous; but after two de- cades ofTory misrule. Labour should not have to rely on underhand tactics to top the polls.
Ann Burgess.
23 Drury Lane.
Lincoln LN13BN.
HAVE you ever met anyone who has voted in the Today Personality of the Year
contest? I haven't David Hughes.
42 Langroyd Road.
London SW177PL.
Work, play and rescue
IN her advocacy of gender games at hor
I and race quotas, Susan Gibb BskyB.andv (Letters. December 12) forgets way topayin that two out of three newly. The Letter
created jobs go to women and “good causes that the majority oflong-term many people jobless are men. ffa quota sys- the FA as a g tem is to be Introduced, it B Emraerso: should surely be biased 111 Charles £
towards young, working-class Selby, NYori males, whose chronic unem- ployment results in violence I ONDON’6
and alienation, and feeds the I gencyaml
growing backlash against lives and red middle-class fern intern. hoodaflong-
(Dr) Aldan Rankin. following ms
Elat K, Guilford Court, (Ground cost
51 Guilford Street, urges report,
London WCXN1ES. also saves th
IT IS outrageous that the I Football Association should ask for Lottery money to fund a bid for the 2006 World Cup (December 12). It has done everything In Its power to reduce the number of people who can afford to watch Pre- mier League football: to take one’s family to a game now costs a fortune: to watch live
games at home you must pay BskyB, and we are well on the way to paying per view.
The Lottery money is for “good causes”. I don’t think many people would describe the FA as a good cause. BEmxnerson.
Ill Charles Street.
Selby, N Yorks Y08 ODA-
I ONDON’S helicopter emer- I — gency ambulance saves lives and reduces the likeli- hood aflong-term disability folk) wing major trauma (Ground costly air ambulance, urges report, December 12). It also saves the NHS a consider- able sum of money each year.
Arguing that ambulances often arrive before the heli- copter misses the point that the helicopter brings a doctor, gfcrfnpri In managing trpnma and anaesthetising patients, to the scene of an accident. Gerry Green.
Chief Executive,
The Royal Hospitals Trust London El IBB.
The euro, yet again proving a spur to disagreement
I (Leader. ««*»»*«* Chancellor’s view that a single currency is desirable for Brit- ain because of the effects on
interest rates and on public fi- nances in other European
countries. May I dissent?
Real Long-term (bond) inter- est rates are broadly uniform throughout the global econo- my, and are mainly deter- mined by worldwide demand wnri supply of loanable fluids. Long-term interest rates, ex- pressed in national currencies, approximate to worldwide real rates adjusted for national in- flation rates and any defeult risk as perceived by the bond market. Short-term interest rates oscillate around the long- term rate in response to short- term forces affecting each national economy.
The creation of a European /vwnmnn currency will reduce the general level of real rates only insofar as it reduces worldwide for loan-
able fends relative to supply. The mechanism that is envis- aged by supporters of a single currency lies in the enforced reduction of borrowing by
some European governments.
The relative importance of these “excessive” borrowers in the world economy is so lim-
ited that, even If Maastricht criteria continued to be rigor- ously applied, the rffcct nn world interest Kites would be imperceptible. Borrowing by British governments is un- likely to be significantly reduced if we joined the euro, so our choice would have prac- tically no effect on global real
interest rates.
Money interesi rate in euros and nat ional currencies will continue to be influenced by expectations of inflation, and, in turn, by post oxperi- ence of inflation and of domes- tic macro-economic policies. D-
mark interest rates have been kept low by long experience of low inflation and rigorous poli- cies. The operation of any sta- bility pact, which (as you and the Chancellor advocate > would reflect political forces in all countries using eurus. is most unlikely to match the ex- perience of the D-mark.
If British governments con- tinue to follow relatively cau- tious economic policies out- side the euro system, our real Interest rates would not be af- fected at all and money rates could fall below those of any truly European euro.
(Pro!) Alan Day.
Chart Place. Chart Sutton. Maidstone ME173RE.
When honour is not satisfied
ptOESthe resignation of L/David Willetts really repre- sent “a Clear-cut victory for self-regulation” of Parliament under toe auspices of the Nolan rules, as you report (Willetts pays the price, December 12)? Surely the manner of that resig- nation— with Mr Willetts pro- testing his Innocence, and the Prime Minister giving cre- dence to those protestations — shows instead feat the gaping vacuum of responsibility at the heart of British politics, Identi- fied by Lord Nolan, is as wide as ever?
Dealing with the Prime Min- ister’s responsibilities on min- isterial misconduct, Nolan recommended that toe first paragraph of Questions ofPro- cedurefor Ministers should be amended to read as follows: “It wifi be foe individual ministers to judge how best to act in order to uphold the highest standards, it will he for the Prime Minister to determine whether or not they have done so to any particular circum- stance.” Downing Street’s res- ponse was to bat the ball back to Parliament— ignoring the feet that lack of confidence in the probity ofPaiiiament was the very problem Nolan was asked to investigate.
Harry Eyres.
4lTunstalIRoad.
London SW98BZ.
A Country Diary
MACHYNLLETH: Somewhere for back in geological time, the rocks at the east end of what is now the Cader Idris range split apart to quite a big way and. despite an unimaginable amount of erosion, that split stffi leaves its bold mark across the landscape. The Ta- lyflyn Pass between Machyn- lleth and Dolgellau is part of It Riding through it in 1773, Thomas Pennant was truly alarmed by the “rude and sav- age nature” of the scene. “The sides are broken into a thou- sand crags — the greater part impend in such a manner as to render the apprehension of their fall tremendous.”
Little has changed. Those rocks still look precariously balanced up there, waiting only for the next hefty earth tremor. At the bottom of the pass is the well-known Talyl- lynlake, described to Black's Guide of 1873 as “truly beauti- fttl but hardly deserving the extravagant eulogies which have been bestowed upon iL”
THE notion that Mr Willetts has “done the honourable thing” by resigning is hum- bug. The condemnation was for his conduct in relation to the quality of the evidence he gave, as a Member of Parlia- ment, to a Commons commit- tee. It is thus his conduct as an MP which has been crit kclsed. “The honourable thing" would be for him to apply for the Chittem Hundreds and, if he feels he has done no wrong, to seek re-election.
Roy Roebuck.
12 Brooksby Street.
London N1 1HA.
DOES the David Willettsaf- fair not demonstrate yet again the British dislike of in- telligence? There were so many snide remarks about his cleverness that one could not help wondering if this was his real sin.
G Smith.
25 Cliffe Street.
Clayton West Huddersfield.
NOW that David Willetts has established his capacity to dissemble, per- haps he shouldjoin Conserva- tive Central Office where his abilities could flourish unchecked.
Peter Murray.
10 Logan Road,
Bishopston, Bristol BS7 8DT.
Never mind, it is a delightful water, much photographed and painted, one of the pearls of Snowdonia. Yet it is not all that long since we were shocked by a vandatistic pro- posal to convert this charming lake into a hydroelectric res- ervoir. like the now-ruined Llyn Peris near Llanberis. Happily, the lake at TalyUyn remains much the same as it was when Pennant wrote: “Went by Llyn y MyngiL a beautiful lake about a mile long, which so far fills the val- ley as to leave only a narrow road on one side."
It is by that narrow road that I write this diary. The sun shines on the far bank and all up the colourful slopes of Cader as I watch the water- birds: a scattering of coots, po- chards. tufted ducks, goosan- ders and mallards, along with two mute swans, a great- crested grebe and a heron. Long may they all survive on this clean and troutful pooL
WILLIAM CONDRY
adopts a sustained strategy for winning the argument. ^ ======
mg of the year award | How a winning personality can lose a poll
Laced with a powerful whiff of hypocrisy — ■
Laced with a powerful whiff of hypocrisy
THE DISCOVERY that tiie Labour Party has been trying to rig the Today programme contest for Man of the Year has caused the party deserved embarrassment. But the people who ought to feel most ashamed are the BBC, for perpetuating this enterprise despite years of attempts at rigging it When it started on the World at One — which later had the sense to get rid of it — Powellites swamped it with write-in votes. Then the Thatcher! tes took over. The greener BBC spokespeopie may believe that the contest affords, as one of them put it yesterday, “a spontaneous opportunity for the pro- gramme's listeners to express their point of view” but few others are so deluded — especially after John Major’s strong showing last year.
Labour’s defence carries a powerful whiff of hypocri- sy. Junior employee carried away by zeal, never any intention of staging such stunts, etc. . . Yet the unfortu- nate perpetrator of this horror, Ms Hurry, works for an Audience Participation Unit whose whole raison d'etre is rigging: getting known Labour sympathisers into audiences which unsuspecting viewers might take as cross-sections of humanity. If Tony Blair was really so shocked by Ms Hurry’s excesses he would dose down the unit But he won’t, any more than the Tories would. They are all in this together.
Yet dumping the Man of the Year competition would at feast remove one potent temptation from itchy spin- doctoral hands. James Naughtie, John Humphrys and Sue MacGregor should refiise to have anything more to do with it, making it dear they will all resign unless it is junked. The whole ridiculous enterprise could then be reallocated somewhere on Radio 1, in the care of Dale Wintom or merged with the Saturday Night TV lottery show, where — if anywhere — it belongs.
Mark Lawson
THE news that the BBC Radio 4 Today pro- gramme will accept no further nominations this year for Its annual Per- sonality of tiie Year poll — after evidence of a Labour Party plot to rig the vote in favour of Tony Blair — is grim news for those of us on these pages who had just fin- ished ffniring the last stamp and faking the final signature in a massive campaign to se- cure the nomination for Peter Mandelson.
We hoped finally to win recognition for bis coy and largely unacknowledged backroom efforts on behalf of Tony Blair. Our counterfeit letters must now remain un- seat ami, to compound Mr Mandelson’s misfortune, he finds himself widely blamed for the Personality of the Year
scam involving Mr Biair. It is unclear whether Jules Harry — the junior employee in Mr Mandelson’s campaign unit who wrote the memo encour- aging Labour activists to i bombard Today with calls — acted on her own initiative or an a nudge from above. But it i cannot be denied — even by a 1 skilled spin doctor — that this was one of two serious defeats for Labour on the same day in the area of presentational or symbolic politics, Mandel- son’s area of expertise.
Simultaneously, in the Spectator, the Spice Girls.
| Britain’s new girlie super- group, came out as Tory -vot- ing and Eurosceptic. This en- dorsement may well hit | Labour among younger elec-
! tors — presumably the Labour campaigns unit is even now working to depress ! the votes for Geri or Mel C of the Spice Girls in the Woman of the Year poll — while rat- ings among the middle-aged and Tnirtrnp-ctaKB might suffer from being caught Interfering with a Radio 4 institution. It couldn’t have been much worse if Mr Blair had been accused of goosing Jill Archer.
Is the vote-rigging scandal just a bit of a laugh? For a party beaded by an unrepen-
tant moralist, it Is embarass- tog. At the very beet, tt looks ' tacky; at the worst sinister. Labour’s basic defence Is that the Tories did it last year. Certainly, the Prime Minis- ter’s runner-up position in the poll last year was highly surprising — as, at the tone, his political popularity rating was only marginally ahead of Arthur Scargfll — but no Cen- tral Office trickery was ever proved. And bow clever is it for New Labour, an outfit al- ready associated with imita- tion and idea-pinching, to use the excuse that they were merely copying the
Conservatives?
Some right-wing commen- tators have tried to argue that people who would rig the Today programme poll would stop at nothing. And so, by logical extension, a few years in to a Blair administration, a rural byelection would resemble a scene from Nica- ragua, with voters forced at gun-point to vote Labour, while Wing-Commander Mandelson, in epaulettes and reflecting sunglasses, staffs the ballot boxes with extra votes.
11118 lurch of logic is as ridiculous as that more estab- lished moral mantra that a man who would cheat on his
wife would cheat on bis country. Interfering with the Today People of the Year polls Is rigging something already more or less rigged. If Jimmy Carter and Henry Kissinger were ever to be employed as Independent scrutineers of this election, they would struggle to declare It free and fair.
It is well known that the BBC carefully polices the var- ious end-af-year polls run by its programmes to avoid results judged inappropriate or unrepresentative. Various amateur rugby club Christ- mas dinners are known to have led to attempts to secure a place in the Today poll for the fly-half or a barmaid. These letters are quietly shredded, along with orga- nised pushes on behalf of the Rev Sun Myung Moon, the Dalai Lama and other cult religious leaders.
In the same way, the BBC Television Sports Personality of the Year pall is rumoured quietly to lose huge volumes of votes for heavily-supported practitioners from low-profile
sports such as anting
champion rod-man Bob Nudd is alleged to have been denied victory several times — and small-bore shooting, viewers and listeners select the win-
ners from lists of those judged i suitable to win by the BBC.
And yet it is still possible to see something frightening about New Labour in this odd i and comic episode. Like the 1 instructions to parliamentary candidates to write letters to i newspapers as often as poss- ible, the obsessive running- ' down of any hostile reference to the party in any branch of the media, the ranting phone- calls to print and television editors, it shows an obsession with the power of presenta- tion, a determination to leave no loophole untied.
Some of this is necessary
for the Conservatives are
dirty fighters and a totally clean campaign win not un- seat them — but there is a point at which electoral pro- fesrionalism and attention to detail becomes paranoid and counter-productive.
That point, most famously was Richard Nixon. As more and more details have emerged in recent years, it clear that Nixon mled off his chances as a pol- | itician by leaving nothing to chance. Far ahead to the polls and nearly certain to be re-elected handsomely he
needed to give himself the ad-
ditional Insurance of burgling his opponents' head-
quarters. And, covering an- other base that sane politi- cians wouldn’t even have seen, he contemplated, recently-released papers snow, organising the sending of fan-letters and cash to Jesse Jackson in order to trick him into running for president and splitting the Democratic vote.
Intriguingly, Nixon also de- veloped an obsession with a Man of the Year poll. Accord- ing to the diaries of his aide. H R Haidetnan, he brooded each December about the selection by Time magazine or its annual must significant tnan. He became fevered with theories about the magazine favouring Democrat pres- idents and there is a sugges- tion that. one year, he cormid- ered offering a long and exclusive interview in ex- change for the honour. The late President would cer- tainly have known what to do when faced with a write-in and phone-in poll like the Today one.
There is a streak of Nixon- and Paranoia med« to some of wh° surround Tony SK and they remain a threat to his chances of Dc-
i?9?'8 P°Ul»cal Per- sonality of the Year.
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Unhappy dawn for the new Hong Kong
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS 9
Commentary
Martin
Woollacott
SOME things are so un- pleasant that we enter into a conspiracy to pretend they are less terrible than they are. So it is with the humiliation heaped on Britain and the flouting of the wishes of the people of Hong Kong that have had to be endured this week as the Chinese rigged the selection of a new Chief Executive and then coolly proceeded with the rigging of a new legisla- ture for the territory.
Britain is so determined to make the best of a bad job that these blatant acts have brought forth no new protest Equally worrying is the fact that because of the gloss of normality which both countries are anxious to put on these transactions, there is no real grasp of the enormity of the changes coming in
Hong Kong. Its expatriate population wmgisrtiwp mainly
of very recent arrivals, is on the whole mindlessly optimis- tic about the fixture. British pension Hinds continue to pour money into the local stock market^ adding to the superficial view that the terri- tory's economy is effortlessly riding the wave of political change. In London, the fac- tion in the political and busi- ness establishment that opposed and undermined Chris Patten similarly pro- jects the idea that, with his “mistakes” about democracy now brushed aside, a busi- ness-as-usual regime can be pragmatically welcomed.
Admittedly, we have known the Chinese were going to do these things for a long time, but that does not a lier the case. The British, have been had, and the people of Hong Kong with them. Pathetically, we are left to draw what com- fort we may from such crumbs as the recent an- nouncement by Lu. Ping, the Chinese official in charge of Hong Kong affairs, thpf he will shake Patten’s hand at the ceremony marking the end of British rule, since pre- viously it had seemed poss- ible that Patten would be
wholly ignored. What has happened in Hong Kong is in truth quite astonishing. CH Tung was until recently a nonentity, a minor business- man of whom most people in the territory had never heard. Rucked from obscurity by China's Hong Kong experts, he has no Independent base, not among Hong Kong people at large, not among Hong Kong's own leftists and com- munists, not in the territory’s civil service, and only mar- ginally among the business community. Hong Kong will, as a result of this choice, have the weakest leadership of any major city in China. The mayor of Shanghai, for instance, is always a national figure. Chinese big cities are run by men with serious po- litical influence in their own region and in Beijing. CH Tung will have neither, but will be, whatever his own In- clinations. which may be de- cent enough, subject to the push and pull of figures much more powerful than himself. In retrospect this may come to be seen as the moment when Hong Kong not only finally lost what chance it had of mairrtaining a localised de- mocracy within China, but also was crippled in its inev-
itable contest with other Chi- nese centres.
The handover in Hong Kong has been accompanied by an open- triumphalism 'which more and more stresses that Taiwan must soon follow Hong Kong back to the fold. The "election” of CH Tung is, said the China Dally, "the first step of the Chinese nation’s great under- taking to realise reunification of the motherland." President Jiang Zflmin underlined the point in an interview in which he said that "the Com- munist Party erf China . . . win not allow any person, any force to split Taiwan from the motherland.” In other recent blasts, China warned the United States against selling arms to Taiwan, told the Vati- can to “cease its interference” in Chinese affaire and. in Sin- gapore. its representative complained that China was being kept out of the World Trade Organisation for politi- cal reasons.
The mixture that the Chi- nese daily brew up combines a self-centred nationalism with repeated threats and gross abuse of both countries and individuals. Yet the West counters with “quiet diplo- macy”. or what President Clinton in Sydney recently called “sustaining an engage- ment with China ... in a way that will increase the chances that there win be more liberty and more prosperity ... in the future". Whatever the origi- nal arguments for quiet diplo- macy, they are surely void now, with China consistently provoking the confrontations quiet diplomacy supposedly avoids, using extreme lan- guage, and stridently insist- ing that only its version of reality is valid. Quiet diplo-
macy has been In the wfain an excuse for inaction on politi- cal and human rights ques- tions, so as not to suffer the condign punishment which China applies to those who cross her. By manipulating trade possibilities — an air- plane order here, a mantling tools order there — China ef- fortlessly divides and rules. The process divides the Euro- peans among themselves, the Europeans from me Ameri- cans, and, within the United States, the business commu- nity from the advocates of human rights. You would
think that we would learn,
but it works every time. There is nothing more sicken- ing than the smirk on the face of a Western trade minister
The British have been had, and the people . of Hong Kong with them
after just learning that an- other Western country has got into a human-rights row with China.
Nobody looking at the re- cord could deny that Chinese sanctions against Western countries have been infinitely more effective than our sanc- tions against them. It is not possible to prove that Hong Kong has formed part of that pattern, for the simple reason that Britain never asked either the United States or its European partners for sup- port in the wrangle over Hong
Kong. It did not do so because the Chinese would have been angered and, no doubt, be- cause there could be no expec- tation of solidarity. But, al- though Britain could talk of international business inter- ests and although it received some help from the United States here and there, it bad to conduct the struggle equip Hong Kong for its future Inside Chirm tially on its own.
China is in the throes of a nationalist revival. There is a huge emphasis on sport, revival of the inane model fig- ures and popular “heroes which proliferated in Mao's day, arid the encouragement of anti-Western posturing by young writers. As in the Bal- kans. a pumped up national- ism Is brought in to fill the vacuum left by a Mandst-Le- ninist ideology that has expired.
Many Chinese, including figures high in the regime, are no doubt sceptical of these ideas, prefering a more mod- est genuine nationalism. Yet for the moment, and be- cause the government is un- certain of its grip on power, this aggressive style prevails. and has its victims. As for Hong Kong, its independence day will be celebrated by a blockbuster film called Opium War, a product of one of the film makers recently exhorted to combat spiritual pollution with films on patri- otic themes. Hang T.tehi. wis- est of China’s dissidents, said years ago that "Patriotism has become the Communists
final slogan but even this is wrong." The realisation that this is so wDl eventually dawn in China, but not soon enough, unhappily, to spare Hong Kong a long travail.
Building bridges ... a man crosses the highway between Pietermaritzburg, a city traditionally dominated by whites, and its satellite black townships
PHOTOGRAPH; JEZ COUlSON
Waiting for
the flowers
For South Africans black and white, the ending of apartheid without war was a miracle. But life doesn’t stay miraculous, and new ways of living together have to be found. Jo- Anne Richards tells of the primordial emotional upheavals provoked by the quest
IN LATE winter each year, when the air is still brittle and dry, I wait for the jasmine to bloom. 1 keep watch, while the grass is still yellow and fine- dusted, for the first bursting tf white blossoms to awaken all hibernating hopes — not just for myself, but strangely, for the country too.
Particularly this year. Just as winter struck, a national despondency enveloped every- thing. And as we all coughed and compared symptoms and cloGged sinuses, we talked in- cessantly of South Africa, as South Africans tend to do.
People gave lengthy ana- lyses — about the wait for foreign investment the down- ward plunge of the rand, the government's rate of delivery, the edginess of whites andthe fever to emigrate But I knew it was lodged deeper in the
national psyche.
Here we crouch, joined by an un severable umbilical cord to the land. In our simple mid earth -governed way. our afflic- tions, our deaths and our sor- rows seem Irrevocably tin**1 to it — inherited memory from our forefathers perhaps, whose lives were buffeted by winds and rain, or lack of
^iT'made me anxious this
war, all the wintry talk or
emigration among whites- Sometimes, just sometimes in the chill of early morning, i
could understand. Oh, us
vibrant here, an right, more than anywhere else on Earth. But it can wear you down, especially when you’re middle class and begin to enter middle age. Worrying about foreign investment and look- ing over your shoulder for muggers.
Everything happens so last and changes so abruptly here. Exiles return, a centre forms... Everything rebal- ances with time. It's just that,
in the toy dutch of national despondency, it can seen mat It will never end. We forget that we are a country which has never coped well with con- tentment No gentle green and pastoral land, we have always swooped between euphona and despair.
This past year, we became vigilant for fairy-tale condo- mens — happy endings in our ups, tragic ones in all our downs. We became readers of magic signs and symbols, as each pothole on our streets became a possible sign <rf things to come, a symbol oi standards lost Each hijacking became not a transitional symptom, but a flashing s^n. a warning of doom and des- tiny. We searched for newor- ades. We revered the porten- tous words of consultants, who charge vast sums to tell us what will be, and how we
should act . ,
If s easy to forget, m a country where the sun metis Uje tar and blisters bare feet.
that we always had potholes, as we always had crime — its seeds well-planted in the long years before the election.
A friend erf mine was robbed last year, at gunpoint She screamed and wet her pants, feeling the steel against her temple and the Shaking of the robber’s hand. She thought erf her children, and I thought of mine, as I visited her shortly after.
1fBut in some ways,” she told me, “think what we could’ve bad. We could’ve had a terrible, bloody civil war. Instead we had a miracle. You can't expect a miracle with no payback at all
“I have nightmares. But we have to get on with life.” And we do. We stm drive where we please, most of us, just making sure to lock our doors, and to scan deserted streets at night before stopping. My children understand that they should lock their car doors and they know where the panic buttons are. What I coach myself to remember — what is hard to remember in the chill of win- ter — Is that this is not our ending. K is not our fete.
T
HERE are no end- ings, happy or sad — just cycles. All nations live through them, the primor- dial ones: renewal and de- struction, elation and despair. It’s just that they seem so very raw, so very manifest here. Such euphoria we experienced before this winter, such eu- phoria and sense of growth. And after our allotted season of dejection win come another time when hopes wfll flower again.
South Africa, particularly Johannesburg, is a place con- stantly redefining itself, shift- ing its communities and the Character of Its neighbour- hoods. Other places, other more settled places, draw com- fort from the feet that their cities have been tamed by the past, plotted into human scale.
forged by all those who came before.
But, built by frenetic, gold- rushed hands, Johannesburg constantly transforms itself There is a desperate strength to its architecture, as though the pull of the past, in its graceful European copies, will never be strong enough to hold back the roughness of the land. The need is always there to destroy what seems too frag- ile a link, and to build larger and more stolid. To create, in brute-force display, an envi- ronment that can never be taken. And it has created a vibrant and intense commu- nity, a community with ener- gy and freshness, with the — naivete of the new.
But never underestimate our sentimentality. We all loved the miracle. Never mind differences, we papered
them over with that rainbow view of ourselves. We lived through a hopeful euphoria, since the election, headier than anything I had known.
We even managed to pro- long it, beyond the election honeymoon. With tears in our eyes, we extended it all through the winter of W with bouts of sports mawkish ness and nation-building. Dancing in the streets — black and white — we all sang Shosho- loza and roared for our mainly white rugby team and. later, bur chiefly black soccer team. Who cared that it wasn’t real — it didn't matter.
Sure, the euphoria’s gone.
Small signs erf resentment return. Government ministers forget to pretend — forget the importance of the Emperor’s Clothing. Teams start to lose. But we're somehow better off than before it occurred. We have a sense of how we can be. There is an earnestness to our racial mixing — working, drinking or at the school gate. And, in a daily shopping-liv- ing-working kind of way, we do still manage to laugh together. Md each other and greet in lifts. Strangely, this Is as it always was, even through the worst times.
Just the other day, during another Incessant discussion, I was accused of white roman- ticism by a foreign . correspon- dent I accused him of not understanding our complex-
ities; of Dot seeing that, even with the release of our tattered rancours, submerged in senti- ment these past two years, we had bonds that went beyond all boundaries. For whites, this meant the memory of
being strapped to a black woman's back, and, some- where deep in our gut, the throb of pennywhistle jazz. 1 was presumptuous, he said, in suggesting this might be true, to some extent, for blacks.
“When I interview blacks now, they say the miracle’s gone. They say whites bleat about delivery, but give noth- ing back.”
It stung, his comment about me, and about whites — in which there was an element of truth. I brought it up, worry- ing at it, on Sunday. We were banging out in Soweto, wait-
ing for a jazz club to begin. Middle-class to their BMWs and CD shuttles, comfortable with their cell-phones and Ray Bans, they were all black, except for me.
INE white sand sifted across our view from an aban- doned mine dump. Children, as chil- dren did a generation before, pushed tyres with sticks In the water-striated street and cre- ated cars from wire. The guys laughed and lciririurl me, nude- ing and throwing arms across my shoulders.
"I think that most people do still want to merge their cul- tures a bit,” said Peter, an attorney, “and they genuinely want to learn how to mrr Even for whites."
"Yeah, we're not like the Americans.” I think that was John, a schoolteacher. "I hope
we never want to be separate. I hope we go on trying be- cause, even if we’re only learning, in the next genera- tion. our children wfll do it properly."
"Well,” said Mesh, a jazz DJ. ‘1 think it’s time for a truly South African sound In music, merging all our influences. And, I’ve never really felt able to admit it before, but one at my earliest musical influences was boeremusiek. .. ”
As their laughter faded be- hind us in the darkening eve- ning, my friend Phetole and I drove back through DiepkloaC one of the oldest sections of Soweto. “This is where the
middle-class people always lived. In some ways, it’s quite sad. I always used to know the places to go, the places that were cooL Now people have moved out gone to the white suburbs. It's all changed."
I commented on the rebuild- ing, the Improvements. In
many jmull g^irrfana J could see the bloom of spring roses, the fire of red bottle brushes, the waving of palms. And, here and there, the creeping of walls, higher and higher.
’Ha,” I said, “it’s not just us whites who build our walls so high."
Phetole laughed- “This used
to be the stronghold of the ANC. The street committees were strong — there was no crime. These days, the crime's creeping in... You know what I miss now? I mi<sn the sense erf purpose."
Phetcde, now a civil servant, trained as a guerrilla after 1976. “I miss the way we be- lieved in a cause, and in our leaders. We had a strong, al- most mystical mission. Now our leaders are just politi- cians. And what is my mis- sion? I have a mortgage and a car payment”
We swept on through Soweto, where every street comer held a small business — a hairdresser under a tar- paulin, a small welding busi- ness with a hand-made sign, a shipping container contain- ing public telephones.
“Besides all the tough things,” I suggested, tentative with someone who had had
such a very hard life, "don’t you find there’s a sense of brightness, of energy? Of things being dynamic?"
“We are lucky," he said, “to be living with so much his- tory and to be part of malting it"
We smiled and I knew the reason for all the euphorias and despairs. Through all the
pain, all the harrinpaa of liv- ing here, we know that we have a greater sense of joy, a greater discernment erf fife, than anyone else. We experi- ence it Intensely, we have an awareness of it in every pore.
That is a gift
THIS WEEK’S essayist, 4o-Anne RJcfaarda, * a Writer in Johannesburg. H*r first novel. The In- nocence Of Roast Chicken {HodderHmdbe}, weaves a rural chMhood into the emcrgenc* of the n«w South Africa. As An investigative Jour- naffstlo the ndd-BOs she cuff ored protracted «t»t* hafSMiMntfwhar reports on police too tare of prisoners. She oo- wrote EcHtora Uwdor Fire, about newspaper* wider apartheid
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After a Tory ice age
Martin Kettle
CCORDING to John Major’s spin doctors, the Prime Minister recorded last Sunday's telev- ision interview with John Humphrys early. The reason, we were told, was so that he could enjoy a peaceful tradi- tional lunch at home with his family. An understandable touch of domesticity if so, but the more fool he. For If Major had stayed In front of the box — but had watched ITV while his own interview was going out on BBC — he might have glimpsed how the Conserv- ative Party may eventually recover, years from now, from the electoral abyss Into which it has fallen under his leadership.
The programme he would have seen was called Dis- united Kingdom? and inevit- ably it got rather overlooked because of the competition from the PATs own perfor- mance. Nevertheless it was a study of a subject which is very close to Major’s heart Its theme was the politics of de- volution. The second and final part goes out tomorrow.
Major and Michael Forsyth think they have had a good year in the battle for the Union, and the first part of Disunited Kingdom? went some way towards explaining why, as it reprised Labour’s embarrassing twists and turns on the referendum ques- tion over the summer. Tomor- row’s programme, however, is less cheering for the Tories. It gives details of an opinion poll which asked the two questions which Labour in- tends to put to Scotland's vot- ers within the next 12 months. To the surprise of some, and doubtless to Labour's relief the poll sbows nearly 80 per cent support for the creation of a Scottish parliament and almost 60 per cent in favour of it having tax varying powers.
These findings confirm that, although there will be a fight over tax before it hap- pens, the long-awaited devolu- tion to Scotland wfll now at last take place. The Tories wifi, fight it down to the wire, but in the end they will lose. Scottish parliamentary elec- tions mil take place in 1999 and at some stage in the months beforehand the Con- servatives will be compelled to say whether they will work with and accept the system. It is inconceivable that they wfll boycott the Scottish parlia- ment so in the end they will do what Tories have always done in such circumstances. They wfll accept the new settlement In less than two years from now, therefore, the Tories will reverse their pol-
icy on devolution. Does this matter in a wider context? I think it does. As I wrote here last week. Labour Is going to win the 1997 general election by a large majority, and prob- ably by a landslide. Watching the Tory backbenchers abus- ing the Chancellor again this week over Europe only con- firms that this is a party which has given up. With the general election perhaps tak- ing place on local election day. May l. Conservative can- didates are in for a rough time on all fronts. This time next year, the number of Con- servatives holding elected public office in the United Kingdom is likely to be lower than at any stage in the era of universal suffrage.
Many of the key questions in British politics for the next decade depend upon exactly how badly the Tfories do in the general election. So for. most speculation of this sort has focused on how the num- bers might affect the probable party leadership election next summer. But the figures will also mould another outcome. If the Tories do so badly that they face the prospect of two terms out of power at West- minster — if they go below 250 seats, for example — then they will have no alternative but to begin to rebuild their party in the country. Just as Labour did in the 1980s. The long march back to Donning Street leads inescapably through local government.
Modem Conservatism has followed a scorched earth ap- proach to local government. The years of absolute power at Westminster have encour- aged it to hack local govern- ment apart, weaken the pow- ers of town and county halls, and to pull up the party's own local authority grass roots. The collapse of the party at local level is in no small way explained by the Conserva- tives' reckless abandonment of local government.
UT the beckoning years of opposition will bring a dramatic re-eval- uation. The Conservatives aren't stupid. They know in their waters that they and not Labour still have an instinc- tive feel for large parts of the country. They will sense an opportunity to counter- attack. With Tony Blair in power in Downing Street, the Conservative Party wifi redis- cover the neglected and spurned virtues of local government.
Before too long we will begin to hear the Conserv- atives talking about subjects on which, for many years, they have had nothing good to say: subjects like decentral- isation of power, constit- utional checks and balances, and democracy. They may even start defending the qual- ity of local school and hospi- tal services against Labour cuts. And if Scotland in due course begins to make a fist of devolution, I predict that Tories in places like the south-east and south-west of England may even begin to see the previously derided virtues of regional government
Making an unelectable party electable again can take a long time, as Labour has learned. There wfll undoubt- edly be periods of collective madness and' local blood-let- ting. In the end, though, there is only one way for a massa- cred party to regain ground, and that is by winning elec- tions and giving their activ- ists a taste of the only forms erf power on offer.
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10 FINANCE AND ECONOMICS
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Watching the detectives, , . Stephen Aker# has spent the last five years leadings team of accountants unravelling the most audacious fraud in the history of world banMn*. involving 150 million documents.
PHOTOCHAI'H UnArtAM7Uftt£R
The BCCI inquiry threw Stephen Akers into rather murky waters. But he can’t be bothered with a bodyguard, PATRICK
Unravelling a global cobweb
WHEN some- one knows as much about themmky fi- nances of the world’s top cocaine barons and arms dealers as Stephen Akers does, one Is probably entitled to feel concern about one’s personal safety.
Ever the down-toearth ao- 1 count ant, 42-year old Mr Akers can't be doing with the bother of a full-time body- guard. But he does admit that be goes through phases of checking for sinister pack- ages under his car. And he parries questions about whether his home (some- where in R»rlringhawnhjn» is the closest he’ll go) is linked up with a hot line to the police with a wry “no com-
ment”. But then this is the price you pay for leading the 500-strong army of Deloitte & Touche accountants who for the past five-and-a-half years have devoted themselves to unravelling the biggest and most audacious fraud in the history of world hanking; the collapse of the Abu Dhabi- based Bank of Credit and Commerce International.
Costing $1 million a week in travel and hotel expenses alone, these battalions of highly paid auditors crawled through more than iso mil- lion documents. This week It was announced that the bank’s 25,000 creditors are to be repaid almost 25p in the pound on everything they lost
It was an operation which created its own esprit de
corps, like the regular quiz evenings at a local City pub packed out with everybody on the BCCI team.
There was a hefty personal price to pay, even thnngh some of the young single ac- countants took advantage of being thrown together for long periods in nftm exotic lo- cations with members of the opposite 6 ex. At least a dozen relationships have been one of the byproducts of the BCCI affair
But for family men like Mr Akers It has clearly been a gruelling five years of skimped holidays. Jet lag and hotel dinners watching CNN. As he thinks back on how his life changed on July 5, 1991 (when BCCI came crashing down), Mr Akers gratefully acknowledges that in Jane he
has a very supportive wife. For from that date he spent most of his life on aeroplanes, leaving little time for his chil- dren, Nicola, 11, and Richard, aged eight
THE drama began to unfold just before lunch at Heath- row’s Penta Hotel Mr Akers is hardly likely to forget it Joining toe firm after study- ing maths at Leicester Uni- versity, Mr Akers quickly rose to become one of De- Ioitte's youngest partners, specialising in corporate recovery. He quickly estab- lished a reputation in the tex- tiles business, and there were ripe pickings as Britain’s in- dustry tipped into recession. And he had arrived at the reg-
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ular partners’ meeting to talk shop, schmooze with col- leagues and no doubt chew over office politics.
Fat chance. A call came through from the Bank of Rngianri. it was picked up by the lead partner, Brian Smouha, who was immedi- ately asked to take over BCCI as provisional liquidator.
Within a couple of hours Mr Akers and four hand- picked colleagues were in a taxi back to central London. And Just about to start work on a. task which would take over their lives and that of 500-plus colleagues.
. The scale of the crisis be- came apparent as soon as toe Deloitte team commandarad an office in BCCTs London headquarters at 70 Leaden- hall Street There was the misery of depositors con- fronted with a worldwide freeze on their deposits. Mr Akers tells the story of a woman tourist who had ar- rived on the day the bank shut to change a hefty wedge of traveller’s cheques to fi- nance her stay in London. Told thin might a little time, she was advised to come back later. Unfortunately, when she returned, the entire BCCI network had been dosed down. And a Barlow Clowes victim put all his com- pensation into the bank just before its assets were frozen.
Customers were trauma- tised. Staff were running around like frightened rab- bits. This bank, which after all had representation in 60 countries, still had poten- tially financially catastrophic postions open in some of its activities such as trade fi- nance. To complicate matters, Mr Akers and his staff had discovered that one of their adjoining offices at BCCI had been taken over by the intelli- gence services. Polite Inqui- ries were met with the flash of a warrant card and the order to get out
Worse stffl, Deloitte could not even trust the BCCI staff “The bank had got 1^00 em-
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ployees- Because of toe scale of the accusations, we didn’t know who we could rely on among the staff We couldn’t take that risk. We had to replace them with our people or from clearing banks."
From the start, it was a case of logistics. A “war room”, open 24 hours a day to co-ordi- nate worldwide developments was established cm the first floor of BCCTs head offices.
Travel expenses began to rise as a handful of partners flew out Club Class to stay at the InterContinental in. Abu Dhabi to try to get access to the BCCI headquarters. Ac- countants bad to negotiate their way past armed guards. And BCCI initially prevented them from removing CBes.
Tbe Investigation, which has cost toe almost unimagin- able sum of $200 million, spread to 130 countries. ,
“From the very start we knew the bank was riddled with fraud," says Mr Akers. “There was a very strong smell of fraud and connec- tions with drug money.”
JA S the web of inter-
#% national intrigue m % widened, Deloitte found itself in g m contact with the m mpolice and other agencies such as the National Drugs Intelligence Unit, also interested in investigating BCCL “We were told by Rob- ert Morganthau, District At- torney of New York, that this bank was rotten,” he says.
But toe big breakthrough came in the first year. The key was organisation, co-ordi- nating the hundreds of ac- countants around the world. From the London headquar- ters which operated a daily
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“prayers meeting" at Rom, staff were divided into a dozen task forces headed* up by a Deloitte partner. Func- tions spanned loans, treasury. Information technology (BCCI used a mainframe sys- tem which was rejected as Un- safe by clearing bonks a de- cade before), trade finance and forensic. I
The forensic division carte up trumps, discovering la huge web of suspect loans to the Gulf Shipping Group, which had itself been looktti at by the Serious Fraud Office. Such was the scale tf the $1.5 billion exposure t| Gulf that the loans were more than the bank’s entire share capital. At the same time. De- loitte was fighting to get Its hands on BCCTs US assets] This resulted in the farcical) situation of Deloitte having lo; plead guilty in court to! charges including assisting terrorism and money lawn-- dering in order to be given . control of half the bank’s North American interests.
Within the first two years. ; progress really enrae on apace ■ as the mountain of 150 million documents was wired up to a computer system; a phenome- nally time-intensive process with about 100 people carry- ing out the indexing.
But as the extraordinary saga draws to a close, Mr Akers reflects that several shadowy characters have slipped through the net Like the elusive Saudi. Ghaith Fharoan, who at one point had the US Sixth Fleet on his tail when he was rumoured to be op the run In a yacht in the Mediterranean. Or the iden- tity of the thousands of BCCI depositors who have yet to lay claims to outstanding funds worth $1 billion.
Mr Akers now’ has more time to coach his son’s foot- ball team, the Chesham United Under 9s. But he ac- cepts that If the same opportu- nity to carry out such a wide- ranging fraud came along, he’d probably be ready to do it all over again.
Finns going down to the wire
Euro
Mark Milner
Finland seems on
East track to sign op
for the European single currency. Come the end of next year, all convergence criteria laid down in die Maastricht treaty arc likely to be in place. The Finns will only have to make minor adjust- ments to statutes governing their central bank.
Odd then that a debate about the merits of mem- bership should be under way. After all, Finland does not have an opt-out from the single currency and, in- deed, underlined its com- mitment to the project
when it made sore it joined the exchange rate mecha- nism in time to make thp two-year membership qual- ification required for EMU.
But, as Jaakko flnntemt managing director of the Helsinki-based Centre for Finnish Business and Poli- cies Studies, notes: “How ordinary people think (about EMU) Is one thing, how the political leader- ship feels Is something different.”
It depends how the ques- tion is posed. Ask the Finns if their country should be tn the first wave of those signing up for the single currency and 45 per cent fall into the “no” or “not really” category. Less Hum one in 10 Is
Give tiie issue a different spin, and suggest that it
Could be fatal for Finland to
remain aloof if most of the rest of the countries In the European Union sign up and opinion shifts, with 43 percent agreeing; barely one In five reckons the country could risk going it alone. •
Finland’s economy baa traditionally depended on i
the highly cyclical paper and pulp industry — al- though the Industrial base has widened in recent years with the development of an electronics Industry clus- tered round the telecom- munications company No- kia. The narrow base has made Finland more vulner- able to asymmetric shocks compared with countries that have more diverse economies.
The traditional answer has been to devalue the i markka, an option that, would be ruled out once the country signed up for mon- 1 etary union.
Finnish economists* al- ternative Is hardly a com- fortable one. They calculate the equivalent effect of a 10 per cent devaluation could be achieved by a 3 to 4 percentage-point fall fa nominal wages.
Both sides of Finnish fa.
hSfSrfK? tookinB at Possi- bly building a substantial slice of profit-sharing into pay structures which would create a cushion, allowing a fall fa wage^ during hard times. Trade unions are keen that alters
native measures, such as a smies of dedicated funds that could be used to smooth economic shocks, should be studied.
The Ffans are also con- cerned about the attitude of their neighbours and «vate, the Swedes. If the Swedes stayed out of the stogie currency that would open the option of competi- tive devaluation if races- forest-products
argue that de-
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signed up to ^ Maastricht treaty, are not the finns already com- mitted? Few think so and *h°w fiht has been EX?11-*0. how parliament deal with monetary union. Finland’s political and business leaders will push hard for membership out, as one Finnish busi- nessman put it: if. come the A* do?s not want to **»« rest of the EU can hardly force It to do so.
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Citicorp scraps plans to buy Amex in history’s biggest takeover- • Merger fever gets overheated
$40bn deal is off the cards
FINANCE AND ECONOMICS 1 1
Mark Tran bn New York
CTICORP, Ameri- ca’s second-largest bank, has aban- doned plans to take over American Ex- press in -what would have been
the Largest buy-out in history Unto last week the bank was negotiating to purchase the financial services com- pany for up to $40 billion (£25 billion). This would have topped, the $25 billion buy-out of food and tobacco group RJR Nabisco by corporate raider Kohlberg Kravis Roberts in 1989.
The mega-merger is thought to have collapsed be- cause of the price and the likelihood Citicorp would
have to abandon Its affiliation with Visa and MasterCard.
Citicorp spokesman John Morris refused to confirm or deny reports in the Wall Street Journal of takeover talks but said- “We have noth- ing against acquisitions that would fit in our business strategy."
Amex merely said: “We are not engaged In discussions with anyone regarding a sale of the company or parts of the company."
Analysts said that an alli- ance between the two would have made strategic sense. “In this day and age, it would have surprised me if they hadn't talked," one banking analyst said.
‘’American Express has been in play for a long time. It
Granada media chief exits amid acrimony
Ian King
.UNCAN Lewis, the for- Imer head of Mercury Communications, has quit his £280, 0004-year job as head of Granada’s media div- ision after a row with his boss. Charles Allen, It emerged last night
Mr Lewis, who Joined Gra- nada only eight months ago, is expected to receive a sub- stantial pay-aS.
News of Mr Lewis's depar- ture. which came after the stock market closed, stunned the City. It is the second time he las left a company after a mafter of months in the job and following differences with colleagues.
Often described as "abra- sive”, Mr Lewis left Cable & Wireless in September 1995, after well- publicised disagree- ments with James Ross, the group's former chief execu- tive.
Granada said Mr Lewis had left after he and the company “recognised an incompatibil- ity of approaches", and had agreed to “part on an amica- Ue basis".
- However, some City observ- ers said Mr Lewis — who at® is some six years younger ban Mr Allen — had never jot on with his boss, and that he departure was no surprise.
One analyst said: “We at ways suspected that they didn't hit it off, and he was never even formally intro- duced to us in presentations."
Meanwhile, Granada ins Id-
Wickes boss in line for failure fee if hard work doesn’t pay
Roger Cower
► *fr ‘ '
BOX Grimsey, the new chief executive of crippled DIY retailer Wickes, will receive a ‘fail- ure fee” if the company’s shares do not begin trading again in January.
Mr Grtmsey’s deal was revealed yesterday in the prospectus for the rights issue of shares, which should allow the share sus- pension, begun in June, to- be lifted. / _
It says: “If trading In the company's shares is not restored in January 1997, a compensation payment of £25,000 will be paid.”
Wickes directors were not available last night to ex- plain this reversal of the common “success fee” prin- ciple in corporate finance. A spokesman said Mr Grim- sey bad worked very hard on the recovery pro- gramme, and he and finance Sector Bill Hoskins had been awarded bonuses to recognition of that effort Mr Grimsey will geta one-off payment of £115,000 “Sirecognition of the ex- ceptional services hehas provided to the group since July 1996’’. the prospectus
*^That sum will be doubled If, as Is widely expected, the company te taken ow j fore the end of Mr Grimsey leaves within a year after the takeover. Mr Hoskins win get a similar deal on his special payment
of £100.000.
These payments are cm top of salaries of £230,000 and £190.000 respectively, and options on shares worth three times those
sums. ,
The prospectus also shows that two former non- executive directors, indud-
ing former Marks & Spen- cer chief Lord Si eft, receive pensions of £12,000 a year.
ers denied Mr Lewis’s depar- ture was due to recent criti- cism of the group's flagship television show. Coronation Street or that it suggested there were any problems at Granada Sky Broadcasting, the group’s new satellite TV operation.
Instead, they identified Mr Lewis’s lack of experience in the television industry as a key reason for bis departure.
One said: “He was an out- sider in this industry, which is really a business quite unique from any other, and where creative, instinctive skirts are at a premium.
“It soon became clear that the relationship was not working in a way in which it should do and. given that it is such an Important role, it had to be resolved relatively quickly.”
Granada has named Steve Morrison, chief operating of- ficer of the media division, as Mr Lewis's replacement
Mr Morrison, who has been with Granada since .1974, for- merly .worked alongside David Plowright who was controversially ousted as head of Granada Television shortly after Granada’s chair- man, Gerry Robinson, be- came chief executive in 1991.
Announcing Mr Morrison’s appointment, Mr Alien said: “During Steve's tenure as Tnnnngtwg director, both Gra- nada TV and LWT have dra- matically improved their profitability, whilst enhanc- ing their reputation for cre- ative excellence.”
Ostrich farm investors have second chance to get the bird
Rupert Jones
A RESCUE plan was offered J4yesterday to people who invested millions of pounds in an ostrich-farming com- pany which went into liquida- tion in April
However, some investors may take flight when they realise it will mean them hav- ing to stump up more cash.
Around 2.700 people put nearly £22 million into the Os- trich Farming Corporation, lured by promises of annual returns in excess of 50 per cent After the firm ceased trading it was found that nearly a third of the ostriches sold to investors never existed.
Those people now have the chance to recoup losses by signing up with a UK-based company called Belautruche (UK), says a prospectus out- lining the venture.
In return for their ostriches — being kept an farms in Bel- gium — and a cash outlay, the
investors will have a share in
the company. People will have to pay a minimum of 13 per cent of their original m- vestment If they originally invested £20,000. that would mean £2,600.
The prospectus states that investors are being offered the opportunity to Invest in a company with a holding in an
existing ostrich fenn.
Belgian farmer Eddy Nach- tergaele. a director of the Bel- gian base of Belautruche. sup- plied the ostriches to OFC and they are still kept. on Ws fenns- The board includes three of the original OFC in- vestors. who are also commit- tee members of the Ostrich Owners Protection Group.
The share option must raise at least £1.5 million by January 10 for the rescue to eo ahead. If the capital is not fai sed, Mr Nach^aele wffl repossess the existing birds to^recover fees he has
incurred.
bag a huge retail franchise, but if it had a weakness it was on Its international side, where Citicorp has an over- whelming advantage. But I wonder If the - talks really went that far, because of the price issue.**
While Amex has a market capitalisation of about $28 bil- lion, observers said It could have cost as much as $40 bil- lion, given the prices finan- cial institutions are fetching in the wave of mergers and acquisitions sweeping the US financial sector.
At that price, Amex would have been a hefty acquisition even for Citicorp, which has a market capitalisation1 of $50 billion.
Very few Institutions would be in a position to buy Amex,
although it has announced a desire to form “alliances” with US banks. Chase Is still
digesting Chemical, while BankAmerica is in the midst of a large restructuring.
The merger of Citicorp and and Amex would have created a financial powerhouse in credit cards and services with significant savings and mar* keting opportunities. Amex could have marketed its prod- ucts to nearly 40 million Citi- corp cardholders In the US, while Citicorp would have be- come owner of America’s larg- est corporate card business.
Moreover, the acquisition of Ames’s rapidly growing Fi- nancial Advisers unit would have given Citicorp an In- stant presence in the fee- based asset-management business, an area that many banks see as a steady and reli- able source of income.
But Citicorp probably would have bad to give up its MasterCard and Visa opera tions because both prohibit their members from Issuing American Express cards. Those rules, which are under investigation by the Justice Department for possible anti- trust violation, have blocked Ames's efforts to persuade American banks to issue its cards — a crucial impediment to its efforts to expand its flaghip charge-card business.
The merger talks, involving Citicorp chairman John Reed and his Amex counterpart, Harvey Golub, reportedly began in November and ended last week. Mr Golub initiated the discussions and the two men met several
Talking turkey - . . Peter Lawrence, chairman of chemical products company Lawrence, reported a 20 per cent jump In pre-tax profits yesterday to £985,000 after record trading. The effectiveness of the firm’s animal feed products has paid dividends in the turkeys reared for the Christmas table at Tollgate Poultry Farm, near Warwick photograph: sieve hill
Lang gives Northern Electric’s US predator the green light
Chris Barrie
THE Government cleared the way for another round of takeovers and mergers among the privatised utilities yesterday when In- dustry Secretary lan Lang waved through a £782 million bid for Northern Electric.
As the Newcastle-based regional electricity company and US predator CE Electric riachpri over the terms of the offer, shares1 rose sharply In London Electricity, Yorkshire Electricity and Southern Electric in the expectation that further bids could be in the offing. The trio are the only Rees of the 12 originally privatised still independent and hot subject to a bid.
Traders also marked up East Midlands shares 2&5p, to 655p, as the City decided it was more likely that Mr Lang would now also clear the bid by US utility Dominion Resources.
Labour said it was con- cerned that Northern would be “swallowed up" In the American utility’s balance sheet Shadow energy minis- ter John Battle said the firm had to be kept within the reg- ulator’s reach.
Mr Lang said he was acting in line with advice from the electricity industry watch- dog, Prof Stephen LittlechUd, and the Office of Fair Trad- ing. The OFT submitted Its views on the Dominion bid to the DTI yesterday.
Mr Lang said Prof Little-
child Intended to modify Northern’s licence so that its credit rating had to be main- tained at investment grade status, effectively preventing the US firm from allowing the British company’s finances to deteriorate too severely.
CE Electric and its owners — the Nebraska-based utility CalEnergy and construction firm Peter Kiewit Sons — have also agreed to supply Prof LittlechUd with financial information on Northern.
Northern chairman David Morris welcomed Mr Lang’s decision and said the bid would now be fought on its merits. Rejecting CE Elec- tric’s offer as inadequate, he said shareholders were being asked to give up almost £1 per share In dividends over the
next nine months. Northern shares rose 425p to 645p, be- low the 650p cash offer from CE Electric, as traders weighed the likelihood of the bid succeeding. Northern is to lobby big City shareholders and its local shareholders up to the offer deadline of next Friday.
The Prudential confirmed last night that it believed the CE Electric offer undervalued Northern. An executive said 650p a share did not reflect an adequate premium. But with dose to a third of sharehold- ers having already accepted the offer, CE Electric chair- man David Sokol said North- ern had been unable to find a “white knight” and the offer represented a “very full price”.
Greece splashes tax dodgers on the front page
Helena Smith In Athens
HELL hath no fury like the wronged taxman and 481 tax evaders have quickly discovered this In Greece. After setting up a crime division and em- ploying gunboats to bunt down smart smugglers, the governing socialists in Ath- ens have now devised a new way to crack down on the national sport.
"If you can’t nab them, shame them,” proclaimed economy minister Yannos Fap&ntoniou. So every Greek newspaper carried
names and addresses of the culprits yesterday, running some on the front page. Among those listed were
a famous basketball coach, a promininent couturier, olive oil merchants, night- club barons and even state- owned banks.
It has not taken long for any of the offenders to deny the crime. Protests aside, however, the European Union's poorest member state has been quick to slap heavy fines on all of its “cherished” names.
The , penalties, as Mr Pa- pantoniou points out, amount to 250 billion drachmas, the sum the gov- ernment hopes to rake in with Its newly announced abolishment Of tax breaks. The fines imposed on the ten biggest names amount to 80 billion drachmas.
Greeks are among the
world’s most skilful tax dodgers, claiming that 500 years of Ottoman rule taught them the tricks of the trade. Since the 1960s tax collectors say they have battled to stamp out a thriving black market be- lieved to rob the state of al- most 40 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product.
The government’s anti- quated fiscal system (com- puters have just begun to be installed in tax offices) and rampant corruption have been blamed for the scale of the national sport
The socialists have al- ready voted to ensure that the method is not only on the statute books but en- forced by law.
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Notebook
The seductive allure of the euro
Alex Brummer
THE significance of the birth of the euro range of banknotes should not be underestimated. Although banknotes per se represent a modest 6 per cent of the Euro- pean Union's gross domestic product, the appearance of the first specimen notes does remove monetary union from the realms of fantasy. The great European public, which until now has had great diffi- culty coming to grips with the concept of monetary union, can now almost feel the crisp new notes — in handsome colours — in their hands.
In some respects, although this aspect of Dublin was pre- cooked. it could psychologi- cally prove more important in the great European debate, both in the UK and on the Continent, than the more eso- teric aspects of monetary union which have kept fi- nance ministers and heads of government locked in combat for 48-hours. When the Euro- pean Union symbol of a circle of stars, is replaced with a national emblem — be it the Queen’s head, the dome of St Paul's or even the Union Jack — it will be that much more difficult to oppose the euro on the basis of it being some- thing alien.
Indeed, anyone thinking bade to a post- second world war era when a pound bought four dollars or eight German marks, might start to feel eternally grateful that Britain has notes, which like their continental counterparts, wifi have a constant value in Europe and against the US dollar. Although there is a view at the European Mone- tary Institute in Frankfurt, the precursor to the European central bank, that a euro- de- valuation against the dollar might he quite useful before the final locking of exchange rates takes place on January 1. 1999.
The notes will, of course, provide the Eurosceptics with a grand opportunity to raise hell about loss of sovereignty. Euro-federalism, insults to the monarchy and all other manner of red herrings. But the notes, with their familiar
generic designs, have a com- fortable familiarity about them. And there remains the strong possibility that the sheer weight of euros circu- lating in Britain, in much the same way as dollars are the real currency of Latin Amer- ica and Eastern Europe, will prove much more acceptable in commerce than sterling.
THE perception of the euro will, be largely de- pendent, on the eco- nomic structures built to sup- port it The first reaction from the foreign exchanges last night to the details of the stability pact — the mecha- nism designed to ensure fiscal discipline among member countries — was less than en- thusiastic. The German mark weakened against the US dol- lar and gilt prices climbed, recognising the attractive- ness of the UK as a likely out country, offering higher yields than those nations likely to be part of the first wave. However, such early reactions should not be taken too seriously.
It is worth remembering that when the stability pact
News in brief
was first proposed by the Ger- mans, as means of ensuring that the euro be at least as hard a currency as the mark, that it was seen as lunatic, mechanistic exercise of Ger- manic birth which hag no chance of winning wider ac- ceptance. What is remarkable is that finance ministers and heads of government in Dub- lin were firm enough to ham- mer out a stability deal at all, let alone one which would sat- isfy the FrankfUrt-Bonn axis.
As it stands, the stability pact does provide get-out Clauses with the right to the return of fines.’ balances in the case of recession in the range of a 0.75 per cent to 2 per cent downturn. That takes care of one worst case scenario, with a degree of po- litical flexibility if the econo- my slows by 0.75 per cent or less. Far more fascinating Is how the stability pact will work under normal expan- sionary conditions. If as all the indications are, the fiscal fixes in Italy, France and Spain are as fragile as they appear, then the stability pact could be at work as early as the first year of Emu — 1999.
IN THAT case it is possible to postulate a double wham- my: the fines will not only- put further fiscal pressure on the offending nations but they will also pile on the monetary1 pressure- The act of making special deposits with the European central bank will be the equivalent of a reserve requirement squeezing do- mestic credit in the countries concerned. This in itself ought to be a good reason for the political authorities, in the would-be member coun- tries, to think extremely care- fully before seeking to qualify by trickery.
In some respects, a union put together more slowly on convergence grounds rather than one artificially created and kept intact by the stabil- ity pact and other devices will be more durable, as David Lascelles outlines in his just released CSFI paper which envisages an Emu implosion In 2003,* as the weaker econo- mies are forced into a down- ward spiral by the pact.
Yet being outside the euro area may well start to be a very odd position to be in. Given that much of the UK’s trade is now with likely euro- area nations, the waves erf euro in commercial and per- sonal transactions could eventually overwhelm ster- ling. There also Is the risk that Britain could become the recipient of unmanageable currency Inflows, which win make the sterling exchange rate even less competitive for UK exports than if we were inside Emu.
As far as the City of London is concerned, there is almost certainly as much benefit to be gained by being an off- shore financial centre — as Britain has been for decades in the Eurobond and Eurodol- lar markets — as being at the centre. Although the efforts to exclude tbe out-countries from Target, the euro clear- ing system, could be more problematical than the Bank of England has conceded.
There are technical risks to Britain from being inside and outside the euro system. How- ever, given the UK’s eco- nomic roller coaster in tbe post-second world war period, the possibility of being part of a stable, less inflationary monetary system is seduc- tive. Oddly enough, the re- lease of the euro notes could provide the populist momen- tum for Emu which has been missing from the debate.
*The Crash of 2003 by David Lascelles. Published by the
CSFI (Tel‘ 01 71 -493-01 73)
Lad broke
sells hotel
Ladbroke Group said yester- day it had sold the 400-bed- room Washington Vista Hotel for $47 million (£28.5 million) to US group Interstate Hotels.
The group also announced it had reached an out-of-court settlement in a tong-running rent dispute with the land- lords of the Paris Hilton. As a result, Ladbroke will take an exceptional charge of £16 mil- lion into its 1996 accounts.
Bunzl in talks
Bunzl, the group which makes cigarette papers and filters, is in talks to buy the bonded fibres business of Vir- ginia-based company Ameri- can Filtrona for about £50 mil- lion. The business was origi- nally founded by Robert Bun- zL if the deal is completed, it will be bought by WBT, a company owned by family trusts.
Chairman leaves
British Building, the materi- als group, yesterday said its non-executive chairman. Dr Robert Paine, was leaving the
company due to "irreconcil- able differences” between him and the other directors.
BP in Columbia
BP is planning to invest around $600 million (£362 mil- lion) in Columbia next year, the group said yesterday, matching its investment in the country in 1996. BP has now invested some £L2 bil- lion in Columbia.
Caledonia stake sale
Caledonia Investments has sold its 44 per cent stake In Bristow Helicopters to Off. shore Logistics for around £49.7 million. As part of the deal, Caledonia win take 6 per cent of OflShore, and will get a 49 per cent stake in Bristow Holdings, the new company formed to buy Bristow.
TOUFUST RATES — BANK SELLS
Australia 2.02 Austria 17.47 Belgium 51.18 Canada 2.19 Cyprus 0.7525 Denmark 9.55 Finland 7.58
Franca 6.38 Germany 2148 Greece 385JM Hong Kong 12.50 India 5950 Ireland 0-9096 Israel 5.44
Italy 2^80 Malta 0JT780 Netherlands 2-79 New Zealand 2.2960 Norway 10.46 Portugal 252.10 Saudi Arabia 8.17
Suppose by Matwnu Bank {axctoOIng imXan nips • and knot! shekel).
Singapore 226 South Africa 7.64
Spain 208.00
Sweden n.ii 3wittartand2.il
Turkey 166,489 USA 1.82
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•••
12
Banking mega-takeover fails, page 1 1
Qfltarday December 14 1996
Unpicking the BCCI web, page 1 0
Financial Editor: Alex Brummer Telephone: 0171-239-9610 Fax: 0171-833-4456
FinanceGuardian
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Japan isn’t working any more
The land of the sinking yen is in economic crisis. Jobs-for-llfe are being replaced by hire-and-fire. KEITH HARPER in Tokyo askswhat*s going wrong
JAPAN’S emergence as an economic superpower, second only to the United States, had been — until the 1990s — one of this century's most dramatic changes in the global pecking order.
But as the yen soared to | new heights against the dollar at the start of this decade, the I cracks in Japan’s industrial, j political and struc- I
tures began to emerge. Japa- nese products, which in the 1970s and 1980s were the best made and most price-competi- tive in the world, lost their allure. Like the multination- als in Europe and North America, the great trading houses were forced to move production oEEshore to their more competitive neighbours in the Pacific Basin, Britain and North America.
With the hollowing out of the industrial base came a fi- nancial Implosion. The super- vision and management of Japanese banks was shown to be deeply flawed, leading to a loss of confidence wbich made the Nikkei, the star stock market index of the 1980s, a laggard which almost totally missed out on the rag- ing bull market that has taken New York and the European bourses to the high- est levels in their history.
The completion of the Uru- guay trade round — designed to open Japanese markets — and the decision by the seven
strongest economic powers to devalue the yen against the dollar brought about long- awaited relief.
There was a belief that Japan could halt the eco- nomic decline, lack of initia- tive and dynamism which kept It in recession during much of the present decade. At the start erf1 1996 it looked as if the sleeping giant would be aroused from its slumber. The International Monetary Fund, perhaps more in hope than expectation, predicted that recovery would gain mo- mentum after the protracted downturn. The deflationary forces which had crushed asset prices and optimism were in retreat
For a few months the West breathed again: growth in Japan would counteract the slowdowns expected in the US after a prolonged expansion and in Europe as it adjusted to monetary union.
However, as the year draws to a close, there is growing evidence that a longer-term cultural, political and eco- nomic malaise may see Japan left behind by its flourishing Pacific neighbours.
Consumer spending, which accounts for SO per cent of the economy, dropped last month by 4.6 per cent — one of the biggest monthly falls on re- cord. Government officials, wishing to make light of the i drop, cite the adverse impact of a cool summer and an out- ] break of food poisoning on ,
retail and restaurant sales. But consumers have kept their wallets shut for years.
None of the traditional remedies has fixed the eco- nomic mess. Government spending programmes lav- ished billions of yen an public , [ works, the Ministry of Fi- nance engineered a currency j depreciation to relieve hard- - pressed exporters and the I Bank of Japan brought inter- ; est rates to record lows. I While Japan's most impor- tant multinationals have shown signs of recovery, the domestic economy is stuck. Over the past quarter, it has grown by 0.1 per cent Next year, the Nomura research in- stitute estimates. Japan’s GDP will improve by little more than 1 per cent Enter Professor Hiroshi Ta- keuchi, chairman of Japan's
long-term credit bank research institute and a top government adviser.
He- is leading a task group to investigate ways of encour- aging tourism on a grand scale, bringing in not juk the Koreans and Taiwanese, but Americans and Europeans and, although it almost hurts him to say it of Japan’s natu- ral enemy, the Chinese.
IN PROF Takeuchi's Asian utopia, hotels will have discount rates, noodles will be £1 a bowl, and road signs will give equal prominence to English and Korean.
A Universal Studios, sup- posedly larger than the origi- nal film lot in Los Angeles, is being built, and there could be a place for a second Dis- neyland and what the Profes-
sor brightly describes as "other traditional cultures”. These Western-style leisure pursuits will be augmented by local festivals, improved use of Tokyo’s nine sym- phony orchestras, and div- ision of the capital into well- signposted tourist zones.
Tb launch the initiative. Prdf TakeucM intends to tap the latent talent of thousands of Japanese wives who have toured overseas with their husbands. They will take charge of a vast network of new information centres in every town and city.
As Prof Takeuchi contem- plates this upheaval in Japa- nese culture, he also ponders what life could be like if his country does not take this leap into the unknown. The yen continues to float against the dollar and in the long
term, he believes, the rate ' will decline to ISO or even more. Into this uncertain pot. he stirs the drift away from Japanese factories to parts of Asia where labour is cheaper — and to Britain. Some 10 per cent of Japan’s production is now outside the country and the gap is widening.
Five years ago Japan was producing 13 million cars a year. That figure is down to nine million and the produc- tivity’ of workers at Nissan’s plant at Washington, County Durham, has more than matched that of Japan’s best
All this could set the stage fbr a long-awaited showdown between opposing forces in the politick! establishment. Since his re-election. Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto has undertaken a broad reform of Japan’s beavily-reg-
Fly me, I work for half pay. Smiles are obligatory
■ ■ ISHIN Shigheta is a I new breed Japanese I worker in a country where the jobs- far-life ethos has been shattered by recession, writes Keith Harp- er.
Miss Shigheta is an air 1 hostess on a year's contract with All Nippon Airways and is being paid only 50 , per cent of staff rates. If she impresses she will be taken j on permanently.
Her arrival at the com- pany is a reflection of its policy to cut costs by 15 per cent over three years. The in-house union raised, no objection to the plan be- cause the move protected the jobs of people at the company, even though some of them took volun- tary redundancy.
Miss Shigheta. says that while there Is no guarantee she will be allowed to stay.
she enjoys the job. She is highly qualified, went to university and the opportu- nity could lead to better things.
She has friends who travel two hours each way into Tokyo for work every day and are exhausted. She lives dose to Haneda air- port, but conditions are cramped in the two-roomed 1 flat she shares with her family In a Tokyo suburb.
“The rent Is big and to buy an apartment is not poss- ible. It Is too much.''
Her father thought he had a job fbr life in his com- pany. Then he was asked to take early retirement, and died soon afterwards.
Tishin feels confident she will survive at ANA. “It’s a very happy company and a smile is part of our train- ing.” But she agrees that the low pay bothers her.
ulated economy. A successful deregulation programme which began this month, tar- getting 13 different areas, may lead to new growth and produce lower prices for both consumers and companies.
‘ But It will be tough to per- suade the bureaucrats to dis- mantle the well-tried system of shielded domestic markets. Inflated prices at home and strong exports. If the civil ser- vants hold sway, the protec- tive planning that for so long has dominated Japan’s do- mestic economy could lead to its long-term decline.
Mr Hashimoto has to act ; Unless he takes a knife to Ja- pan's excessive living and I wage costs, consumer de- mand will lag and firms will search fbr cheaper accommo- dation abroad.
A recent survey by the Nip- pon research institute revealed that 55 per cent feared they or a family mem- ber would be unemployed within a year. Unemploy- ment, at 3.4 per cent, is low by Western standards, but the prospect of substantial layoffs if stagnation continues is being talked about openly.
Dreaded short-term con- tracts are replacing the Jobs- for-life philosophy that has been the lynchpln of Japan's post-war recovery. Compa- nies are rejigging their labour forces to cut costs and make them more adaptable. Core jobs are maintained, but In- dustry is pushing older work-
Ponderingan uncertain; future . . . Will these voting Japanese have to join tto ranks of the unemployed?
PHOTOGRAPH: BERNARD ANNEBK&UE
t
ere into subsidiaries to tr* to enhance the profits of parent organisations. 1
It Is not all glaum. Mr fa- shimoto is showing signs'et hitting back at Japan's con- formist protectionism. Fnad with official forecasts th|L without reform, the councy will be lucky’ to achieve lotfc- term growth of 1.75 per cert, he has announced a shaketp of the financial markets.
A DECISION t)
break up the Nip pon Telegrapl and Telcphon* Corporation to spur competition is in the offing and tbe Cabi- net is drawing up a ranch broader package to revitalise' wholesale, retail, housing anti' transportation markets in the: new year.
It will be a slow process, be- cause the Japanese are a con- servative people, but nothing • else has worked. The days of , Japan’s double-digit growth are gone. They belong now to Asia’s newest tigers, such as Korea and Vietnam, and no- body has seen the beginnings of the best of China. Japan’s twin policy of financial reform and deregulation and the opening of Us frontiers to streams of visitors may work. But Japan will have to coun- tenance a swifter change than it has so for been ready to concede; otherwise the more confident tigers will take over her lair.
Quick Crossword No. 8309
Ruddles County Riddles.
No. 13. Pub Challenge.
For Peter Barnaworlfay it of Hie doors, Ifff the prize, beet iast meted to lie, hit
H
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Peter did let knew which.
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Pah Qaiz Chempiosship after Ruddies County.
ashed one uf the nee a
six gruelling rands.
Bat Us victory eras by no means final. He bad yet to claim the prize.
The challenge was set. question, and upoe hearing
9 \mfM
He did not know behind which door (they were narked I and 2| lay whieh
He was placed in the prize. Beside each doer
hia answer confidently strode through door 1 to claim his voucher.
Peter is of coarse too
wm
bar of the Queen's Head Pub stand a barman to help bin busy to tell n how he
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in Wertoott. There ware two doors, each loading to
deeide which door to choose, worked oet which door to However, the catch was choose. Do yon know how
different rooms. Behind one th*t one of the barmen had he worked it oat?
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1 Tepid (8)
5Primadonna(4)
9 Argentine dance (5)
10 Strong paper (7) '
1 1 Study of triangles, angles (12)
13 Curiosity, strange object (£)
14 Russian plain (6)
17 Running ot a household 02)
20 Dirty 1 7)
21 Outdo (5)
22 Get rid of — a hut (4)
2SN American India, axe (31 1 6 Penthouse, shedtxddei
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2 Associated — relations (7) 3DaydrBamer{4,8)
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19 Anti-aircraft fire (4)
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December 14 199$
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/ AGuardian
It was shattering news. One of the American team sent by President Clinton to negotiate a peace had been sleeping with Britain’s enemy, a member of the political wing of the IRA. It was an awflil day for peace; a great day for headlines such as “Sex Scandal Perils Peace Talks”. Blit this “Dangerous Liaison” was a fiction. Roy Greenslade on how lies flourish in a climate of hate
Kiss
and
tell lies
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No troth about their tryst
only in the imaginations of Ian Paisley and a few journalists were Gerard Kelly (left) and Martha Pope (below) lovers. But why let the truth spoil a good scandal?
PHOTOGRAPHS: MCEMAKER
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IT WAS a story which would send tremors around those capitals of the' western world which were anxiously moni- toring the teetering peace process in Northern Ireland. ‘Dan- gerous Liaison”, bellowed the front page headline in the Mail On Sunday The subheading told the tale: “Major warned by M15 of link between top IRA man and US peace negotiator"
The implications were explosive. Anything to do with American involvement in Northern Irish pol- . itics was desperately sensitive. Unionists bitterly resented the presence in Belfast of Senator George Mitchell, the greying for- mer Senate leader who had origi- nally been despatched by Bill Clinton to see if he could break the decommissioning deadlock which prevented all sides from sitting down at the same table, even dur- ing an IRA ceasefire. If Mitchell — now chairing the talks without the still-excluded Sinn Fein — failed. the peace process would be back to square one. Any suggestion that be or his team were in some way com- promised by close personal links to Sinn Fein would have a devastating effect on the credibility of Clin- ton's efforts to broker a deaL
The Mail on Sunday’s story .could not have been more explicit. It claimed that both; Clinton and’ John Major, the FBI and Patrick Mayhew had all been told by MI5 that Mitchell's deputy' Martha Pope, had been having an affair with a senior member ctf Sinn Fein, Gerard KeDy
Pope was chiring the Talks Support Team, working with her long-time colleague Mitchell. Kelly was jailed in 1973 for his part in the Old Bailey bomb. Imprisoned in the Maze, he escaped in 1983 and spent four years cm the run before being extradited from Holland Freed in 1989, he is now one of Sinn Fein’s most senior members and was elected earlier this year in the elections devised by Mitchell as a way round the decommissioning deadlock. He would be a Sinn Ftein delegate to the peace talks, if and when the party is ever included.
The MIS report, said the Mail on Sunday had details of secret week- end trysts between the 51-year old American diplomat and Kelly 42, who had been writing romantic poetry for hen It was accompanied by a call from the DUP leader; Ian Paisley for Pope to be sacked.
Here was only one problem
with the story: it was completely and utterly untrue.
But this Is not a familiar story about the sort of journalistic self- delusion which spawns giant cock- ups. Instead this is a story about foe extraordinarily perverse worid erf Northern Ireland poli- tics. This is one of foe few occa- sions when some kind of spotlight mm be trained cm the casual dirty trickery which passes for political discourse in those benighted Six Counties.
Why did the Mail an Sunday publish a totally false story? What convinced a seasoned reporter and an experienced editor to risk run- ning an exclusive which was, and this is a well-chosen euphemism, bunkum? Every material “fact” was wrong and, by extension, every innuendo.
The Mail on Sunday story of December 1 — bylined by the crime reporter Chester Stern — told how the M15 secrets were revealed to foe Democratic Union- ist Party conference by Mr Paisley who told them: “People in Senator Mitchell's office are not to be trusted for they're friends of foe ERA."
Paisley's deputy Peter Robin- son, evidently told foe paper his ,
party had ; raised the matter with Mayhew sjad the Prime Minister There were no quotes from either Pope or KeQy Mayhew was quoted and, -in the latest edition, there was a statement from the North- ern Ireland Office (NIO). foe form and content of which are the cen- tre of the controversy The Mail on Sunday was not alone in break- ing the story The brash Dublin- based tabloid, the Sunday World, ran a variant which alleged that Kelly set out on a failed mission to seduce Pope.
The ailing Express an Sunday which has lost hundreds of thou- sands erf readers to the Mail on Sunday in recent years, could not bear being scooped by its rivaL So it made the r.lnoKir. mistake of lift- ing foe story for its later editions. In a swift rewrite, it repeated foe salacious details.
Newspaper ' stories move quickly Agency reports were soon appearing on computer screens in papers around the globe. By coin- cidence, the Washington corre- spondent of the New York Post, Deborah Orfn. read foe Mail on Sunday at Heathrow Airport an her way to a riding holiday to Ire- land. She saw it as damaging to Clinton, which fitted ^page 14
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14 I THE WEEK
CO
TU. amjhn Saturday December H 1996
PHOTOMONTAGE TOOTH
CD
CO
CD
CD
CD
How you rate
0-4 Celery 5-9 Salty io-i4Sugoiy ISSpiey
Us on us
The British view
£ If he [David Willetts]
» really bad been a man of honour be would have resigned, and in an era wben it seems no one resigns unless forced into
it, he really would have
earned brownie points, not just in his party bat in the country at Lar^j. But he didn’t. Instead, he aggra- vated his offence by “dis- sembling" as the committee
says. That’s about as dose to calling a man a liar SI as it could get #
The Portsmouth News
time to stop messing about. He signed a contract which earns him a reputed £15,000 a-week to play for Middlesborough and he S should honour it. W The Northern Echo
Swell he’s bach, but how long will he stay?
Brazilian footballer
Emerson finally
to the North-East Nowit is
SAH anuTing animal wag.
cue was staged by motor mechanics when a cheeky hamster was trapped inside a can James Wesley could not believe it when he got into Ms Peugeot 106 and found that his seat belt bad been chewed to bite by
the rodent. The hamster had squeezed through a quarter oF an inch air vent in the boot of the car and bad made a nest behind the panel with the chewed 8 up seatbelt. W
Bolton Evening News
Them on them
The globaJ view j ni^
i # Members of the crowd “ recalled how 36 years ago they saw 69 of their l relatives and friends being silenced with guns when they demanded their rights to freedom. “The new constitution wannf1 a lot to us,” said 70-year-old Mrs Gladys NtulL “We saw the blood of our relatives sink into the soil and their bodies lose life. This day is for them; to restore the B rights they fought for.” Cape Times on the signing of the new South African constitution at SharpevUe
nursing homes, crops, cars and the local hospital. A resident said of the storm with hail the size of cricket balls: “We’ve just seen Independence Day and ■ it was just like that." 7 Sydney Morning Herald
£ Pot as medicine may B now be the law in
SThe town of Singleton was declared a natural
M was declared a natural disaster area yesterday with damage to houses, shops, schools, churches.
B now be the law in California, but that does not mean Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates has to like it. Proposition 215 legalised, marijuana for medical use in California, but growing or possessing marijuana inmaint illegal under US statutes. “We are obviously going to provide the name of any doctor involved with marijuana to federal ■
agents,” Gates said. 7
New York Times
HAVE YOU
©EEKfWtNG
'attention
1. -His hadr^aU right but w* don't agree with his tax pond**." Who won’t bo voting tor Tbny W»bT
2. “Whan pull eomos to shorn, the pounds, doRns and doutschmsxKs cstrt baaqwl«lfr * torrtbl* trick on th* British p*o- ,4a.* Who dorided mone- tary union?
fa) John Redwood
(b) Sir Jurat OoMenHth
(c) Norman Larmont (d|GeriSp!oe
3. -*Th* oH-feeWonod family of 3.4 kMs Is d*e d." Who tMinoaiiod the donds* of th* nudoer family?
(a) Victoria OUHck
(b) Victoria Splco (cj Garl S|do*
(4 Harriet Hannan
4. -Site preona and lo*rs In a desperate attempt to sown auv-" Who dhht bring th* house down?
j s. "Rocky and Rambo had | nothing to do with reality j and *r* bygono comlo- ; book mythology.* Who I atteckodSyhroster Station*** oeuvra?
6. Which tenwnft tanner** threatened evfcUon led to statements of support from Agriculture Minister
Angela Browning and her
Labour counterpart Qavtn Strang?
Streets where innocence is no defence
This week last year December 13. 1995
THE ad in Loot said flat- share in Clap ham North. I only found out after signing the lease that our front door was techni- cally in Brixton. Fresh off the boat from America to do research for my Harvard PhD on race relations, I had no idea how important this detail could be.
On the night of December 13. 1995, 1 turned on the news to images of Brixton in flames. I had to take to the streets: this was a heaven- sent opportunity to gather first-hand data.
On my way home from three hoars of interviews I noticed an abandoned car and thought 1 should call the police. I was raised in the American mid-West where Officer Friendly teaches youngsters to be good citi- zens. Just another corn-fed nutter; someone later remarked-
When two police vans turned the corner I was ner- vous. but I hadn't done any- thing wrong so I moved over to the kerb, eager to make a statement By way of a greet- ing the officer turned me round and frisked me He
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smelled my hands for petrol and talked of Molotov cock- tails. He pointed to a small pile of stuff around the cor- ner and asked me what it was. A quick investigation revealed a kitchen apron, a bottle of wine, an electric
torch and a joint of beef Nothing dangerous. Well, maybe the beet He then accused me of
stealing it from thecae After 1 explained who I was. he crossed the street and a sec- ' ond cop came by He asked why I would choose to live in Brixton — this neighbour- hood where people would mug or stab you for nothing. Just then the first officer came back and arrested me. He did' > n't like my story My arrest sheet said I bad been “very
dose to stolen goods sus- pected of having been taken during the Brixton riots”.
They searched my house, allowing me to put cm my only sweatee Five minutes later at the police station they confiscated it and held It for the next three months.
They also confiscated my clothes — saying they were sending them for testing —
my camera, front door keys and passport Arrested in the early hoots of the morning, I was locked op for 16 hours in custody There were small mercies: when I commented - to the man who strip- searched me that it was a bad day to have haemorrhoids, he told me we weren’t going to get that intimate.
Although! believe it should have been immedi- ately evident that I had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, that didn't pre- vent them releasing me on police bail giving them two months to charge me, later extended by another two months. My lawyer damp. flnpdmy anfhiwUagmftw;' . protest duringthis period of - legal limbo. The authorities could charge me, could I extend my bail date, could I prevent me from leaving the country; in short, they could make life heU.
Over three months after the arrest —on being informed that the case against me had "collapsed"
— I went to collect my belongings. For some reason, the police withheld my scarf.
They then tried to return to me the allegedly stolen goods (with the notable exception of the beef). Although the officer assured
me that signing for ill-gotten Items wouldn't hurt my case. I politely refused and when he asked again in March 1 reftised a second time.
In eariyAprO the police finally returned my scarf . They were even lilce enough to include a copy of my mug shot 1 wanted to sue for wrongful arrest (Tom Ameri- can), but decided not to press a case.
Looking back, I know the police must have been under alotof stress on the night of the Brixton riots, but does that explain what happened tome? Neighbourhood lead- ers tell me that community- police relations in Brixton aiuimprovjnfrBUttheresi- dente I taukedfo during the 1 December “Incident" blamed the police for overreacting to a peaceful demonstration. And most of the police I encountered In return blamed the community one ^aiming that assignment to Brixton was like deportation to Siberia.
These tensions run deep.1 There is a man in my neigh- bourhood who drives around in a big pink tank adorned with two giant pigs. A sign on It reads: “We are NOT going to take any more stick from the Old Bill."
ErlkBleteli
7. Which band anraimrad plana to re-form?
(a) Th* Moody Blu** fb) Th* Monks**
(c) Th* Who
(d) Th* Splc* Girt*
& Sir John QMgud bocame a msmtosr of fh*
< Onterof Morlt. Who efid ha rapfseo?
9. What doss
this symbol w • ’
represent? mMmmmmr
10. Britain
must % ,
introduce the euro by 1999, ,
aooonfing to the “Senter Clause”.
Trite or falsa?
1 1. Which offensive weapon was banned from Bm terraea* at Gflflngham F.C.?
(a) Carrot
(b) Aubergine fe) Celery
(d) Radlcchlo
12. http^/wwwijiumlMO- • 10.g<HuA Who Bees her*?
13. Barry Matthewste hod- day snaps could coot Boots £30,000. What do they depict?
! 14. “I think they look strained together." Which troubled couple?
(a) Charles and Diana (14 Edward and Sophie (e) Andrew and Sarah (4) Tommy and Pamela
IS. Who wont bo attend- ing the Pope's public mass on Christmas Pay?
Answers, bottom left of this page
Kiss and tell lies
{page 13 the paper’s agenda, and filed her own version which repeated all the allegations by attributing them to “a London newspaper”. On a thin news day it became the splash with a typically lurid Post headline.
The Washington Times, also anti-Clinton; was delighted to report that the “affair” was “com- plicating Mr Mitchell’s bid to bro- ker a peace”. The perilous implications of the story if true, were being spelled out.
But within a day it fell apart. Pope issued an unequivocal state- ment “There is categorically no I truth in this story I have never even met Mr Kelly”
Quiz answers
I. Geri, Mel B, Mai G, Victoria and Emma, aka The Spice Girts, accortfing to an In- depth pofittcaJ interview In Hie Spectator. Z. <;3 GertSptea, ditto.
3. (c) Gad Spice, ditto.
4. Lte Hurley, whose performance as DeSah Inan American TV minl-aeries was savaged by the critics.
5. Statone hknsaff in an interview In Radio Times.
8. Eddie Grundy, of the Archers, throat- aned with eviction by the ruthless Simon Pemberton.
7. <b) The Monkees
8. The late Sir Frank Whtttta, Inventor of me engine. There eat «iy be 24 OMs at any one tfena.
8. The euro, the European currency unit, unveBedtMs week by the European Com-
m tester.
10. False. There's no such thing as Santer Clause.
II. fc) Celery.
12. A virtual John Mafor.it Is the web site address of No 10 Downing Street 11 The Arctic. The 38 snaps showed soB conditions and vegetation token on an expedition mounted by scientist Matthews, who la suing hb local Boots farthe loss of the pictures.
1 4. Charles and Diana — who spent an uneomfortaWa evening together at Prince WJSam'e carol service at Eton.
15. The Pope, whose thing htshh has forced him to abandon his usual Christ- mas Day mass, though he will deliver the Christmas blessing to pBgrims In St Peter's Square.
■ ^KTELLY, having been
shown on the doorstep of his Belfast home a ^B newspaper picture of « wShPope, was widely
quoted as saying: “If I had met tier I would have remembered.” A spokesman for Senator Mitchell
said: “The allegations are totally false."
In a remarkably swift climb- down, almost unprecedented in popular journalism, both the Mail on Sunday and Sunday World accepted that they had got it wrong. They agreed to pay Pope "substantial” damages (of £50,000 each) and apologised. Further damages from the other papers which repeated the story are only a matter of time.
The Mail on Sunday's apology customarily published with a great deal less prominence than the libellous splash, was unchar- acteristically fulsome: “The Mail on Sunday wishes to express Us deep regret for the distress caused to Ms Pope in both her profes- sional and personal capacity and has agreed to pay her substantial damages and legal costs.”
It was. by any standards, a spec- tacular mistake. So where did the fault lie? There is little doubt of the Mfo ripo Sunday's journalistic guilt, which it has readily admitted.
But the paper’s culpability has to be seen in the context of North- ern Ireland’s absurd politics of
paranoia. It is a politics informed by suspicion and bad faith, r: misunderstanding and preju- \| dice, half-truths and downright 1 1 lies. Denials, no matter how cat- \ egoric. are never taken at face \ value. Truth is hard to divine I Dirty tricks are two-a-penny Lay- ers of secrecy only make it worse
Most importantly, it shows how influential and meddlesome a fig- ure Paisley remains. Look no far- ther for an eminence grise in this tale than a reverend gentleman who believes God is truth.
The first genuine fact that emerges is that the bogus story of
Pope and Kelly has been
around forages, at least ” as far back as mid-Octo- ber. it was certainly doing the rounds — 1 ~~
among Paisley's DUP Majo
and Robert McCartney’s Hnrfj
splinter; the UK Union- =-2i—
ists, in early November: j
It is not known where Wwj
DUP members them- MWm
selves got the story — be w m
it MT5 or some other ■ I source. JJJ
On November 8, Pais- ;
ley referred to it. albeit rJgTri
obliquely in the North- 5*g_-
era Ireland Forum. He - SSL?
alleged that one of Sena- tor Mitchell's staff had HsT-
been holding secret talks ?■£__
with the IRA Mitchell |gEg
denied it. j
The story of this allega- SPWBI
rinn was broadcast on Belfast’s Downtown Radio that night Reporter Trevor Birney not only referred to Mitchell's denial bat added: “A government spokesman said the Secretary of State's office was not aware of any meetings and said that anyway any meetings the independent chairman may have is a matter for them.” Those words would prove ominous for the Mail on Sunday. ,
The story still refused id lie (town because Paisley wouldn't let it In the following weeks various correspondents from British papers, along with BBC journal- ists, heard of the supposed Pope- Kelly links. They are used to the rumour factory checked it- out and dismissed it Crucially they are also aware of Paisley’s single- mindedness.
They ignored hints and whis- pers from senior DUP members about “a juicy piece df scandal that'll blow Mitchell sky-high." A senior Official Unionist politician also told me that he and his col-
Headlinesto sink all hopes of : peace. ..an b part of the | tangle of fear ft and suspicion K. that rules in B Northern K Ireland
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leagues began to bear rumours of “flesh-on-flesh contact between Kelly and a Mitchell staffer”. He
might just have believed them, he said, if the person who told him hadn’t added that it all stemmed from a DUP member having seen Pope and Kelly mentioned in an M15 report, he had spotted on May- hew’s deskin Stormont.
This was so for-fetched, he told me, that he knew then it couldn’t be true. Again, most experienced broadsheet correspondents heard about thi* claim and rightly scoffed at it
Paisley wasn’t to be put off. One df his members raised the matter with the Government and received a written , assurance that it was untrue. Still Paisley continued taiiring to anyone Who would lis- ten, especially aa his DUP party conference approached.
Finally the Sunday Wodd reporter Hugh Jordan showed an Interest He is said to be extremely hostile to Sinn Fein and was only
Stoo delighted to pick up the tasty morseL Then, out of the blue on Saturday November 30, the Mall on Sunday’s Stern called him. He had realised that he and Jordan were work- ing an the same story It is suggested that Stern picked up his story from two republican sources. That appears puzzling, because the only people obviously hostile to Mitchell are the Union- ists. Republicans, who trust I Mitchell, are desperate to get into his talks process. In a bizarre story it's just another odd detail.
Stern pointed out to Jordan that they weren’t sales rivals, so could they swop information .and run the story together the next morn- ing? Jordan obliged with his Pais- ley quotes. Stern offered his Mayhew quote.
Quite why the Mayhew quote — which hardly amounts to an admission' — should be so valuable is hard to divtne. It said: “1 know- nothing to lead me to doubt the- statement by Senator Mitchell that neither he nor may member of his office has any contact with Sinn ftein."
But we have to imagine that ' both Jordan and Stern knew noth- ing -of. the allegations in the
forum, of Mitchell’s reply and erf the radio broadcast by Birney Stern, and his editor Jonathan Holborow, read Mayhem's quote as a kind of nod and wink that the story might be true. It was not, to their minds, an unequivocal denial In their early editions it was their only official response but they kept trying the NIO until they found a duty officer.
He issued a statement, tacked on to their story in the final JXJ L. edition, which echoes EAfl Oft almost word for word Jk the one issued three 1 B| weeks before to Birney: | “Any meetings which I Hp the independent chair- / man or hla staff have
!/ Bp. with, any Individual are / entirely a matter for
j flk their judgment and not a f ■^'matter for Her Majesty's Government.”
In other words, though ■r Holborow and Stern, did ■F' not realise It, this spokesman was merely ^R- reading from the NIO's pre- pared hymn sheet They ■f thought it was yet another equivocating statement a code for their story being true. The MO thought it the j^propriate response to a rumour they thought had been killed off three weeks before.
“If the story was all bullocks, " said an exasperated executive, “why didn't . they- say so?" He couldn't understand why even If Mayhew didn't want to say so in public, he didn't do so off the record, as guidance to the reporter
The NlO will have none of Wife It believes that its denial was suit- ably forthright and the paper foiled in its main duty to check it with the two people it was about to
libeL That charge, at feast, la unanswerable.
Ironically, there Is some support for the Mail on Sunday view within the Mitchell camp. The Americans can’t fathom why nei- ther Mayhew nor the NIO issued clears t; stronger denials which would .have, made the story go away
Pope is, according to colleagues, shaken by the experience. She was
previously sergeant-at-arms in the
Senate, the first woman to hold the
post which involves running Its large bureaucracy and acting as its senior security officer As- one close friend told me, she has spent 20 years in American
politics. “She’s been around the track," she said. “She knows poli- tics isn’t for cissies but this kind of stuff takes it to a whole new level.”
Even after the denials there were new rumours. It was claimed that Mis had taped Pope talking on a mobile phone saying: *Tm going to Donegal for the wee tend with Kelly" But she had a staff member; Kelly Currie, so it was a case of mistaken identity
Except that Pope doesn't have a mobile phone. Aim! so it goes on: lies, obfuscations, innuendos, an endless succession of unsupport- able allegations which muddy the water.
IT appears that Pope — who is staying in a Belfast hotel — has been issued by the Gov- ernment with a credit card, which she uses for her meals every day Her routine is therefore instantly checkable if the security forces really wanted to keep track of her
Some of Pope's friends argue that Kelly was under ML5 surveil- lance, even within the Republic,
I and was seen with a woman who was misindentifled as Pope in the resulting MI5 report But the exis- tent* of the report is in doubt.
The NIO say no such report exists. Security sources deny it WQUhi come as no surprise if T*re being watched but that
fh iorln k* handled by
the RUC Special Branch.
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The Guardian Saturday December-14 1996 • . THE WEEK I dS
How Josh Astor, a man with two famous fathers, became a tabloid playboy-junkie sensation
A star-crossed Astor
PTHE JOANNA COLES INTERVIEW
£ £■%£?’*-
91 ■ right. Ob
the press ■ have
stuck all
scots of labels on my forehead. Playboy-Junkie . . . Junkie- Aristo, blah, hlah, blah,” matter Josh Astor, struggling out of a battered
White Ford Fiesta.
It’s the morning after the night before, which saw the nfflniat opening of the Cobden Club, Lon- don’s newest hangout in
west London, and Aster's latest business venture. A alight figure in ripped jeans, geriatric leather jacket, pink pyjama-style shirt decorated by a cigarette bum and two large stains (one coffee, the other paint), ifs impossible to reconcile him with his “society playboy” image and wild-child antics which kept the News of the World and the Sun in business for much of the eighties.
In tow is Daisy Temple, a pretty flatmate drowning in a vast fisher- man’s jumper, and brought for protection against the press. Cour- tesy of squank good looks, money, a flmwiw surname and fanwu* father (in this case the two are not the same) Astor ban had enough newspaper maniinga to last him a lifetime. Ifs not hard to see why. Tossed out of Eton for smoking dope, jailed for possessing co- caine, you’d be pushed to Invent a better tabloid target And yet there’s more.
Throw in the foci that he’s not really the son of Michael Astor (Nancy Aster’s youngest son) who brought him up, but the illegiti- mate son of Jpe “Gannex” Kagan, a key and notorious member of Harold Wilson’s entourage, and you have enough character and plot for an entire series of novels by Jay Mclneraey.
"If they said I sodomised horses Td laugh now," Astor continues, lighting the flrstcrfmqpy ,Marl- boro£ ~MI don’t rfeally care; well 1 did care at first, but after you've been called every name under the sun Ifs somehow rather liberat- ing. Ifs a bit like those kids’ games, where you put the right I peg in the right slot. They find a 1 slot, you’re a randy vicar or a playboy junkie. Well Z wasn’t the former."
We’ll come back to the drugs in a minute, but above us two beauti- ful brass chandeliers are swaying gently, their motion caught in a huge mirror. Outside there’s a teasing scent of alcohol, the cleaner is buffing wildly with an industrial vacuum cleaner, and a beautiful waitress spirits In a tray of black coffee in stark white cups. Even though ifs black, no sugar, I feel as if I may soon develop a hangover — it’s that kind of club.
Kate Moss, Rifat Ozbek, the EmDys Lloyd and Mortimer and Will Self are on the membership committee. Last week Bryan Ferry. Patsy Keosit and lord Snowdon turned up for the Vogue Christmas party here. Some 750 members paid their annual fee up- front before the doors were even opened. (Membership now costs around £350 and the list is tempo- rarily closed.) .
In a comer of the private dining room there’s an ice-bucket with an expectant bottle from the previous evening. "Ah, Pinot Grigio," cries Astor, seizing the dripping wine and offering it round. The man- ager puts his head round the door to demand a chat about chefs, and a golden dog suddenly .emerges from under the table and silently wanders off.
Before I probe any farther, IBgr are we should finish with Ins fear of the press. What was the worst
encounter? , .
“Well it was quite annoying out- side court One paper foBtows you around hassling you. telling you that you want to sell your story,
you have a brief conversation tat ine them to piss off and have a nice day. The following morning you read that that constitutes
‘striking deals for your story*.
•'db*T. £
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Josh Astor ... 1 don’t really care; after you’ve been called every name under the sun ifs liberating. You’re a randy vicar or a playboy junkie. Well I wasn’t the former.’ PHOTOGRAPH: EAMONN McCABE
Frankly, the suggestion that you’d take their money is more offensive than any combination of junkie vicar, randy playboy ”
The court In question was Southwark Crown, where Astor was charged with possession of co- caine. He was 21, it was his first offence and he was sent down for three months. Was he shocked?
“1 knew I was going to go to prison." he grins weakly. Can he remember being sentenced? “1 waited 10 hours, then the jury couldn’t reach a verdict on whether they'd reached a verdict" Eventually they did. Guilty. "By the time I got the verdict I was relieved actually. By that stage Td been sitting around being hassled, with the Sunday Mirror shouting *Come on, well give you £5,000.' ”
Was he scared? "No, not at alL Whafs there to be scared of? You mean being confined?"
No. I say, thinking of Lord Brocket's recent experience at the hanrta of a gang armed with razors, scared of being beaten up? “Why would they want to beat me up?” Well, you must have been very different from the average prisoner. "Most of the violence is done by the officers. You just switch off really. Ifs very boring, you shut down your brain, you just sit around and read books. Ac- tually, ifs quite relaxing. I was in a quite happy mood. I was only sentenced to three months and I
‘I was a child of the state,’ he laughs spikily,
‘so really, when I went to prison, I was just going home.’
thought rd get six." Was he wor- ried he might be raped? "No, I didn't see any erf that, but ifs to do with self-confidence isn’t it? There were one or two people who had a few problems, but they were very, very nervous and they advertised themselves as targets. Ifs very like school, except everyone's grown op so if s less vicious be- cause everyone’s got to get on with everyone else.”
At the time he was accused of taking his famous surname to new lows. Do its associations weigh heavily? He refuses to say. What about his family, what do they think? "It worried my mother [the former fashion journalist Judy lanes] as to how it all affected me, but it didn’t realty affect me.”
Josh was adopted by Michael Astor, the author and former Tory MP when he was three. But a cus- tody battle ensued and, though be was brought up at the Astor home in Oxford, be was technically a ward of the Official Solicitor.
"I was a child of the state,” he laughs spikily, "So really, when I went to prison. I was just going home."
Though he knew the identity of , his real father, he had no personal contact from the age of two until : he was 19.
In the intervening years, Ka- gan's fortunes rase and fen. His twtflg business flourished, earn- ing him a life peerage in Wilson’s
infamous 1976 Lavender List, but he was always surrounded by foggy rumours of KGB connec- tions. Thai in 1980, when Josh was 14, Kagan was charged with theft and false accounting and sent to jail for seven months.
“It was a farce." Astor recalls, when Kagan did eventually mafrp contact "I was lying in bed with a girlfriend when there was a knock on the door and this guy appeared. He was an executive at the Daily Mirror, I don’t know what hold my father had on him, anyway, he dressed like John Major and spoke . as if he’d come out of a Jane Aus- ten noveL
“He said 1 have come on a mat- ter of not inconsiderable delicacy’. I was like what? My girlfriend was there, and he kept looking at her and saying ‘of some delicacy'. Finally I said: ’Well spit it out then.’ So he said: Tve got a mes- sage from your father*.
“My "girlfriend didn't know any- thing about my father, and asked if he usually communicated like this. The message was that he wanted to meet me. Then the man from the Mirror went into this whole spiel about how he’d been adopted when he was a boy ... 1 kept saying: “Yes, tell him HI meet
hhn, tell him yet; 1 ”
Does he remember the first meeting? “It was strange because I didn’t remember him at alL It was like meeting someone for the first
time. He was always rather melo- dramatic, he wanted to give it a rather luminous ambience and I found all that a bit tiresome.”
Did he feel he resembled Kagan? “No. he was 75 by that time."
Did he like him, did he feel a connection? “Yes, I could see a connection, bits of him in me." Which bits? “I can’t ... well ... same sort of sense of humour."
Did he think it curious that they both ended up doing short stretches in jail? “We never spoke about it I did ask him about it once and he stonewalled.” Why does he think Kagan called him? Was he motivated by guilt? “It’s hard to say," Astor says tactfally. “He had three other children, they all knew about me so there was no awkwardness. I think he was slightly seeking alter what was lost Maybe he worried more about what he didn't have, than what he did.”
Despite his image, I am sur- prised to find that Astor seems remarkably well-adjusted. He recounts the odder parts of his life with good humour and worries constantly that he might be upset- ting other people. 1 wonder if he was conscious of his absent father as he grew up? He shrugs: "No, one father goes, another comes." Realising how bald this sounds, he adds quickly: “It’s very common now."
But that doesn't mean it isn't
traumatic. And there must have been more trauma when Josh was 13 and Michael Astor died. “1 think it would have been quite awkward to have them both around at the same time, you know. It would have been a con- flict of loyalties.
"T had another father, then he died, then the other one made con- tact. They were serial, consecutive."
After a hesitant start, Astor, the chief investor, looks oddly at home in the Cobden Club. A groovy com- bination of library (members are invited to contribute a copy of each book they’ve written), restau- rant and vast bar with theatre space, Its main attraction is that you can drink until 1.30am. But why a membership dub? “Well, I think people like the idea of going somewhere where they don't have to arrange to meet someone, some- where they can have a drink In a civilised atmosphere, and where they can pop in for half an hour if they're in the area.
"It’s familiarity. People don’t speak to each other on tube trains, everyone's anonymous, the more people there are in a city, the more Isolated you become."
And besides, he adds, heading off to a lecture for the degree in humanities he's now reading at London University: “I have a one point plan to save the country. Abolish the licensing laws."
hardy
I blame the absent fathers, myself
IT WAS announced this week that the practice of paying
sperm donOTS is to end. It is al- ways worth listening to news stories about semen to hear what euphemisms are used in order to maintain the tone of British
^vJbSthehanon British beef
task of informing us that minis-
tislly, viewers and listen
iSSKSSffliESS!'
require those ingredients. Then it became apparentthat the semen
was for purposes of artificial insemination.)
After a few days, someone must have decided that the nation s mo- rality was at risk from the men- tion of generative fluid. So the term “by-producT was sabsb- mted. 'Ihte was dearly an unsatis- factory avoidance
semen". This ended confusion and distinguished It from cow semen.
No lessons have been learned from that unhappy episode. On Tuesday night we were treated to a BBC report about human “gen- etic material’ Mara sure that if the young students who provide the genetic material thought of it in those terms they would be unable
to accomplish the donatioo.
The serious question in all this is whether it is right to be paid for being a sperm donor. The obvious answer is that if Richard Little- _ John gets paid for being what he is, then why shouldn’t a student? But the relevant regulatory authority, Gftoss, decided it was unethical
It is not difficult to see why. The imaingy ofblood -donation was mentioned. No one really knows how much infected blood was sold by junkies around the world be- fore Aids became widespread, or
how many of the world’s poor have bled themselves dry so they can buy food for their children.
True, sperm is carefully screened, and donors who overdo it risk no
more than a little soreness; but toe taint of money remains. All decent people fundamentally believe that there should be no place for profit in matters m health.
The dilemma is that, without a financial Incentive, most sperm donors wont bother. This Is not so surprising- After all, drug compa- nies won't just give medical sup- plies to the Health Service; they want money for them, and a lot more than is paid out to hard-up male students. It is preferable that, in time, more mm are persuaded to give the gift aflife freely; and that students are able to study, without having to do all manner of things to make ends meet But in
tits short tprm, Rrjfaiu needs
sperm, and it seems that the only way to obtain it Is to bong young men a few quid.
To many people trying for a child, donated sperm is a very simple and effective answer to a fertility problem. It also makes parenthood possible for women who are not beterosexuaL Various absurd objections have been
raised against lesbian mother- hood. Most of them involve the no- tion that children will be damaged by the experience. I should have thought there were many advan- tages to being a child with two
Michael Portillo’s lather fought against the fascists in the Spanish Civil War, and yet reared an evil little Tory
mums. For one thing; you’d be nicely turned out In the morning, although you might be late for school trjang to run a gauntlet of palms and saliva as your mothers inflict rival partings on each side of your head.
The argument that the child will be disadvantaged by lacking “a
positive male role model" does not stand up to much scrutiny. Most children barely see their fathers. And even the most splendid role- model is no guarantee of anything. Michael Portillo's father fought against the fascists in the Spanish Civil War, and yet somehow man- aged to rear an evil little Tory scumbag.
Many people object to lesbians and unconventional families on the grounds that they are “unnatu- ral". The same vague prejudice clouds the whole discussion of fer- tility treatment Ever since the term “test-tube baby” was coined, people have fantasised about some sci-fi nightmare going on in our hospitals.
I think there are some who be- lieve babies are actually being born In laboratories, even though this only happens in hospitals with acute bed shortages.
In truth, artificial insemination is usually a very cheap and simple procedure. And all medical treat- ment is unnatural. Any talk of na- ture in the context of health Is
entirely misplaced, and is encour- aged by herbal nitwits who seek to drag humanity back to p re- techno- logy cal times when, if there was anything at all wrong with us, we just died.
But in the way the fertilisation regulators are discussing sperm there exists a grave and pious atti- tude to its donation. They want donors to take a more serious atti- tude to the task in hand. They sus- pect those students of being frivo- lous and Irresponsible.
I know there is a movement to re-establish the notion that we are genetically predetermined, but I don’t think the recipients of stu- dents’ semen should really fret that a child will have an over-de- veloped need to store traffic cones in its room.
Readers may remember my out- lining thecontrooersialconoiction
qf Danny McNameeJbr alleged IRA activities. If you would like to send Danny a Christmas card, write to him OiHMPFull Sutton. Stamford Bridge. York, YOl 4PS.
16 I THE WEEK
The Guardian Saturday December 14 1996
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White faces, red ribbons and true blue party tactics
SUNDAY: The Albert Hall was packed for a concert by Jools Holland and his Rhythm 'n' Blues Orchestra. Jools has this really annoying persona on television, but is a fantastically talented pianist, a Horowitz of boogie-woogie. By the end, of the night the whole hall was bopping gleefully in the aisles and boxes- However, the only black face I saw belonged to an usherette. The orchestra were all white, includ- ing the trombonist from Jamaica. The singers were also white, and so was the entire audience, i looked carefully so I'm sure, it was most peculiar, like a country- and-western concert at which everyone wore business suits. I came to suspect that Jools ’s Cans are musical anoraks, who would feel deeply threatened by the real
thing
MONDAY: At a Christmas party, I met a young woman who told me about how she had been pursued this year, unsuccessfully, by a well-to-do married man. He’d taken her to a show, then on to supper at the Groucho Club in Soho. Here, to prove that they’re not all selfish media greedheads, they put £1 extra on every bill for charity. She hadn't been very
hungry, so she asked for just a starter. He did the same and or- dered a bottle of Puligny-Montra- chet, a very expensive white Bur- gundy. Later, while she was in the loo. he bought another. The final bill read: Food, £8.50; Drink, £9$; Homeless £1.
TUESDAY: I bear that Dennis Turner, a whip, did a brilliant stand-up turn at a Labour Christ- mas dinner. ■‘We're going to stop MFs bringing the party into disre- pute. We've just installed a micro- wave oven in the whips' office. It seats six.” Meanwhile, I was chat- ting to a Tory MP. a former Cabi- net minister, who says with abso- lute certainty — and a certain gloomy relish — that Labour will win the next election. “First, no- body who didn't vote Tory last time Is going to this time. Second, in seats where the Liberals are third, their supporters will hap- pily vote Labour, which they didn't in 1992. We do not stand a chance."
WEDNESDAY: The argument about TV violence and crime is dragged out yet again. I consulted my colleague Duncan Campbell, our crime correspondent, who points out that in 1869 it was esti-
mated there were 20,000 Hardened criminals in London alone; roughly one in 100 of the popula- tion. Lacking TV to blame for this, they picked on the end of trans- portation instead. The ultra-vio-
New Labour sees the voters, and even its own MPs, as statistics to be massaged and pushed around
lent Dick Turpin and his gang once held an old lady over burn- ing coals to make her say where her savings were, and he'd never seen The Bill. US research sug- gests the real problem Is not that TV causes crime, but that it brightens non-criminal people Into thinking that the world outside is much more dangerous than it Is.
THURSDAY: Dozens of letters have piled up about Aids ribbons, many helpful, some full of hysteri- cal charges of bigotry. OK, I ac-
cept that the red ribbons are to show solidarity with victims who felt isolated and reviled. Yet fig- ures just published show that far from being persecuted. Aids vic- tims have triumphantly won the financial battle. The £51 million the Government spent on Aids research last year works out at £94,000 for everyone who died of the condition. The same statistic for the 150,000 cancer victims is less than £100. There is a real problem of priorities here, and pointing that out isn't bigotry but common sense. Liberally-minded people must join in tbe debate, too, otherwise we leave it to the fundamentalist zealots and the truly intolerant Right
FRIDAY: “Blair’s just a market- ing man with no Ideas," said Spice Girt Geri (the one who ap- pears nude in the current Club magazine) during tbe girls' sem-
inal interview on politics printed In today's Spectator. (Tbe girls could singlehandedly restart the Young Conservatives, as young men flock back to join them for ping-pong, coffee mornings and a spot of “zizagag” — whatever that is.) And just to prove that what she says Is right along comes the great Personality of the Year vote-
Flesh and the
devil
HEAD TO . - HEAD
Eleven dead from E.Coli, not to mention BSE. Who’d eat meat? No one should, it's cruel, says actress Margi Clarke. Oh lighten up, chef Shaun Hill retorts. Organic meat is humane — and tastier than veggy stodge
Dear Mr Beefeater,
Y REASONS for giving up meat are numerous, though the build- ing of a more compassionate world is the foundation of my vegetarianism. Deregulation of the farming industry has taken away much-needed safety controls and good practice — copying the attitude displayed everywhere else when industry goes for the gold rush. Animals bear the brunt of our greed — all for reasons of taste, even though we know that taste can be simulated by non- animal products. BSE, E.coli, sal- monella are only the beginning of the list of animal diseases, includ- ing leukaemia, cancers, TB, that are waiting, rather like a stack of planes to land at Heathrow.
It wasn't until I reached adult- hood that I began to question the need to eat meat My own light on the road to Damascus was a story that my sister, who once worked In a meat-processing plant on the beef and gravy dinner line, once
told me. She saw a piece of meat with a large tumour in it and was told by the supervisor not to throw it away. Once if s covered in gravy, the supervisor said, the old-age pensioners won't know what it is and it win give them something extra to suck on.
How could I live with myself stroking me dog, petting me cat, then eating me cow? We are arro- gant as humans in the way we think everything on this planet belongs to us.
Fm not attacking you, Mr Beef- eater, but the industry that treats animals with casual sadism. The ecological argument has more than shown the evidence of “false economy*’ — clearing of rain for- ests and soil erosion, not counting the cost of feeding animals pro- teins which could feed humans in the first place.
As we go into the 21st century the physical and spiritual rewards for vegetarianism are vast, for os and for animals. So take care. Mr Beefeater, 'cos we'd like you to come with us, too. Love,
Margi Clarke
New Internationalist magazine
Keeping an eye
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Dear Margi,
YOUR reasons for turning vegetar- ian do you credit but do not stand up to any real scrutiny. There are disgraceful practices in the meat industry and people collude in tbe ill-treatment of animals by turn- ing a blind eye to the realities of battery farming.
But vegetarianism is not the only alternative, nor is it the most effective in forcing change In the areas that trouble you. Decently- reared, decently-fed and hu- manely-dispatched meat Is avail- able if you take the trouble to search it out
It costs a little more and is unlikely to come in easy-to-cook packages tike chicken nuggets or predigested pie fillings. But it Is there: free-range pork, organi- cally-fed chicken and grass-fed beet all free of hormone and growth enhancer. Buy it and sup- port those behind it, so that people at the grimmer end of the trade are made to follow suit
What of the alternative? Vegeta- bles are sprayed with all sorts of chemicals, fruit is irradiated so that it can withstand lazy hand- ling without looking rotten, and soya protein and tomato are now liable to have been genetically en- gineered for purposes 1 know not
The only valid reason for vege- tarianism is a philosophical one. that you do not want animals
slaughtered in order to eat a more Interesting diet I cannot argue with that — my problem ties in the moral high ground which those avoiding meat want to occupy. And the sort of grub offered by way of substitute.
Most purely- vegetarian meals that I have eaten tend to be the gastronomic equivalent of a hair shirt — brown, bland stodge. I wonder if this is part of vegetarl-
Doonesbury
anism’s ascetic appeal? So my ad- vice this C-hristxnas is: tuck into some crisp roast goose and feel good that it had a decent life, and that by eating it there will be other geese bred and fed for next year. If you want, have lentils with it as welL Love,
Shaun Hill
The Merchant House
Ludlow
Dear Mr Beefeater,
I LOATHE the thought of killing innocent animals who have never done us any harm just to appease my belly and my tongue. The con- cept of simply spending more on buying "organically*’ reared ani- mals is, at best, naive.
Most oE the poor in this country living on housing estates don’t even have decent supermarkets, let alone the money to shop around. They are forced to buy cheap, nasty food; you don't have much choice when you're trying to survive on £49.50 income sup- port Ask a greengrocer in Liver- pool, where I live, for half a pound of mange-tout and heTL think you're giving him die come-on.
Your proposal for us to force change by shopping elsewhere Is noble, and I can see that you’re obviously thinking about the poor. Why can't you extend that com- passion to animals — surely the poorest of us all?
Your point about vegetables being sprayed is, again, wide of the mark. 1 agree that it goes on and I find it reprehensible, but the only Living things to be harmed by this are us an ri we should unite to get the law changed Again it is only the poor who are targeted; I bet they don't dish up this kind of veg at Buck House.
Not all vegetarian food is
“brown stodge". I can’t believe that you. a chef, can say that. Have you never cooked a meal without meat? If you were a painter and I commissioned you to do a painting without the colour blue, would you say “No. Tm unable to paint without blue”? 1 eat the same food now as 1 always have, simply without the meat
As for “taking the high moral ground” I’ve never been evangeli- cal about vegetarianism. It’s up to individuals to make up their own mind up about these issues.
Love,
Margi Clarke
Dear Margi,
IT FASCINATES me that you feel you must couple the fight against world poverty and inner-city de- privation with vegetarianism. The two are obviously linked in your mind more than mine.
It is eccentric to Interpret a suggestion that one should eat less, but better, meat as an attack on those on income support What is yonr alternative? Have you asked those on income support if they wish to become vegetarians?
I am glad that you have arrived at the point which Is central to our difference of opinion — that is the slaughter of animals for food — and have dispensed with all the bogus health arguments. Surely this is a matter of personal feeling. Tbe availability of mange-touts where you live isn’t relevant.
You are passionately opposed to the Idea of chickens and sheep for food. I am OE with that but have strong feelings about the treat- ment of these creatures while they are alive. We have more in com- mon on animal welfare than you think, but I suspect that pressure from those who do eat meat will
rigging scandal- which has knocked even David Willetts off the Aunt pages. Now. I fully ac- cept that Mr Blair had no idea that the young idiot who works in the party's media centre. Jiuw Hurry, had sent the smoking let- ter. trying to fix the Today vote on his behalf. (Though I'd be fasci- nated to learn how much Peter Mandelson knew.) But on the other hand. I’m equally certain that Ms Hurry wouldn’t have written the letter if she dldn t work every day in a culture of ma- nipulation. Like tbe marketing men Geri complains about, New Labour sees the voters, the media, and even its own MPs, not as people to be persuaded by force of argument, but as statistics social blocs, to be kneaded, massaged and pushed around. The Tories have had the same cynical attl tude for decades now, but Ifs sad to see Labour follow Log them. I can understand why they do it; four defeats have made them be- lieve they must imitate the Tories to have any chance of winning. But now it looks certain the elec- tion Is sewn up. couldn't we have a bit more philosophy and policy, and rather fewer focus groups, warm words and behind-the scenes fiddling?
have much more effect in improv- ing matters.
I have cooked plenty of meals without meat which I felt were fine, but have no wish to be restricted to meatless meals. If you want to be told which colours to use when painting, good luck. Those who think or eating as "ap- peasing their belly" aren't ideal for meals of any kind.
Love,
Shaun Hill
Dear $haunf
DID NT anyone ever tell you that poverty, deprivation and the abuse of animals are linked, and If you want me to spell it out to you I will: read this slowly and let it sink in G-R-E-E-D.
I didn't suggest that you were attacking people an income sup- port, I was trying to illustrate the lack of choice the poorest mem- bers of our society have when it comes to food. They are forced to eat crap and if they are to eat less but better meat, where is the money to come from? Where do they buy this meat even if they had the money? And. how do they get to wherever it is to be bought? I don’t think Fortnum & Mason has branches on working-class housing estates, do you?
So. the health arguments I "trot- ted out*' are bogus? Try telling that to the 11 people who have died of E.eoli and the other hundred sick people. Aren't you aware of the frightening amount of (pre- dominantly young) people who have died from CJD? The Govern- ment has finally admitted that there is a link between infected cattle and the human equivalent. Perhaps they forgot to tell you.
You suggest that pressure from vegetarians will have an effect in improving things. Why should it be left to us when you acknowl- edge that there is a great problem? Why can’t we aU Join hands together on this and fight it together?
There have been many great struggles over the centuries: the abolition of slavery, the suffrage movement, the emancipation of black South Africans — the list is endless and continuing.
I do know that people who have supported these movements have been scorned. The suffering and abuse of animals (consider veal crates) at the hands of heartless businessmen are, for me. equally important and go hand-in-hand. Love,
Margi Clarke
PS: Where do you get your veal from?
Dear Margi,
MENTIONED " that my mein problem with vegetarians is the high moral tone they often adopt And. as a cook, I have trouble with the food eaten by such paragons, rather than tbe principle of not eating meat You have alluded to the rain forests, the future of the planet the abolition of slavery and the emancipation of South Africa as similar struggles. This is non- sense. It is particularly vegetarian nonsense, because it is pompous and self-righteous.
The bad news is that avoiding meat does not make you a better person nor does it in itself; im- prove the world. Those who remember that well-known devout vegetarian, Adolf Hitler, will put you right on that one.
Your cause would be more at- tractive if concepts like a jolly vegetarian didn't seem such a con- tradiction in terms. The way to change things need not be through humourless people and joyless food. Vegetables and vegetarian dishes can have far better tastes than are be dreamed of by those who cook and eat for solemn prin- ciple. So tighten up, Margi dear, drink a bottle of wine and put salt in your food The world may seem a better place.
Love,
Shaun Hill
S—'Vv ‘ ? ^
is EUROPE the debate of the centurv or isn't It? The Times Keeps say las tt Is, sol turned eagerly to its pages yesterday to discover what had transpired on the second day of the Com- mons two-day debate. As Blue- bottle used to say in The Goon Show: not a sausage. But then Malcolm Rifkind and Robin Cook are hardly a match for Mel B. Victoria. Mel C, Emma and Geri — the Spice Girls — some of whom have big breasts, and one
of whom has a tattoo. This polit- ical storv, in which the girls revealed they were That cherr- ites at heart but, even so. backed John Major, beat the poor old Commons by 165 Lines to nil.
The success ofthis stunt may have a further undesirable con- sequence. It will further Inflate the swollen head of Simon Sebag Monteflore, who wrote the Spectator piece on which it was based. It follows the mov- ing tribute to Teabag ns the only Journalist to get into the trial of Nick Scott, which appeared In the Attlcus slot in the Sunday Times — under the byline of Simon Sebag Monteflore. This space, of course. Is usually filled by Tacky. He Is said to be rest- ing, but Small weed suspects this is part of a plot by the Sun- day Times to confound all those readers who previously thought that you couldn’t sink lower than Tacky.
While we Ye in this area, had anyone previously heard of Thomas Bl&Ude. ve ho wrote the Spectator's narky review of Amanda Craig's A Vicious Cir- cle — the novel that got toned down alter David Sexton, the mag's fiction reviewer, had ob- jected that he was portrayed in it? No details are given of BLaikic. though the piece docs confess ‘T know Miss Craig as a schoolgirl.” (Presumably she was the schoolgf rL not he?)
R YEARS now. Small- weed's life has been plagued by doubt over why John Selwyn Gumroer ceased to beSelwyn. But now we have an authoritative answer. The Dally Mail’s Answers to Correspon- dents column (a tip-ofT of Notes & Queries in the Guardian, though even that was not en- tirely original) carried a letter asking this question. There were several replies, but one stood out from the rest. This was Cram Gumroer himself, a man who probably knows as much as anyone about how this change came about. So here is the reve- lation we've all been waiting for. “I dropped Selwyn from my name" Gu turner confides "be- cause it was convenient to do so.” Good of you, guv. we're most gratefuL
Aw
flat
BY GARRY TRUDEAU
ND THEN there is David Willetts, wined and dined t the Connaught, as yes- terday's Guardian Diary revealed, by Bruce Anderson and Alan Watkins of the Specta- tor at a cost of around £170 per head. In this week's issue, the two journalists give a Inngous- tine-by-Iangoustine account of the grub and the booze (amaz- ingly, one bottle of wine cost them only £55). Watkins bas yet to pronounce on the dis- sembling. though he took a for- giving view of the memo in a recent Independent on Sunday. Bnt Thursday’s Times con- tained an eloquent tribute by Anderson, portraying Willetts as a man traduced by pygmies. These Spectator chaps really know how to look after you.
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH'S obsession with the actress Liz Hurley has reached a point where psychologists need to be sent for. Last Saturday they ran a feature on the latest Versace launch picking out Hurley as one who was there.
On Tuesday — under the head- ing “Why. why. why, Elizabeth” — tiiey bad to confess that the lady’s appearance in the US TV mini-series Samson and Delilah had ‘failed to bring the house down". (On the contrary — w hen you read the critics, it was clearly crashing around her bead). Still, at least it gave them a chance to use her picture. On the following day a feature by Christopher Howse (with pic- ture of Hurley) asked why t bis story hadn’t worked on the screen. Suggesting a more origi- nal subject — the British Sam- son. a publican known as Top- htun, he asked what future roles tUzabeth had on her books. As I ve noted before, whoever Is be- hind this obsession is also deter- mined to call her Elizabeth. Tt7?e’°lic w" une caption- vmu. s called her Liz, but I understand he s been shot.
Photocopiers blamed by
Heseltine — newspaper headline.
A photocopier writes: I wish to protest on behalf of myself and my colleagues against this en- tirely uncalled-for attack by a senior government minister on a loyal, hardworking and un- complaining group of govern- ment servants. His remarks were — as machines tike me
aS!? !2y “ "ou tor. order". In- deed, they would have been roundly condemned before now but Tor a problem with paper jams. Does this minister reallv
suppose that government in
this day and age could function without our services? lam **at S'00 wi11 understand to the circumstances I can’t
JjjSF10 say any more. I seem to be clean out of toner.
4
i
John Ezard and Graham Bound on
the meeting of two brothers from the Falklands who joined opposing sides out of conviction as the conflict ended
Outcast of the bitter
islands
No return: Terry (left) and Alec Betts meet 14 years after their parting in Port Stanley, above, at the end of the war (photograph. tcmsmthi
ONE day in mid- June,.. 19JB2. two brothers walked through the smok- ing, stinking, war- damaged chaos of Port Stanley, capital or the Falk- land Islands, towards a fateful separation. Deep In the most in- tense conversation of their lives, they set off from a house in Callaghan Road, where the first pioneers In 1843 built tin shanties in which poorer families still lived 139 years later.
They walked along Davis Street, past the sometimes shell-battered, houses of a terminally declining colony. On the comer of Philomel Hill, named, in the 19th century, after a Royal Navy ship which was in turn' named after a distant English nightingale, they stopped for a long, (Inal talk.
"We had a deeper, soul-to-soul, heart searching conversation than any two brothers can have had," Terry Betts said. They parted at peace, but close to tears. Then Terry walked back to com- fort their mother and father. Alec Betts walked down the steep hill — past the burnt-out Globe Store — to the public jetty. And there he sailed with the defeated Argentine
invasion fleet to live in the country. which had just occupied and tried to annexe his homeland. He settled in .Cordoba. Argenti- na’s second city.
It was a scandal, as wen as the deepest family tragedy of the 1982 conflict “Our parents went to hell and back," said Terry. Alec was hardly ever spoken of in the house. He was the tally Falkland islander who had gone over to the enemy. It was partly because he had fallen in love with an Argen- tine girl called Santina; but also because he was a Falklands na- tionalist savagely disillusioned with British rule. After emigrat- ing, he became convinced that Ar- gentina had a good case for sover- eignty, a rare view for an islander, which be has stuck to with Falklands doggedness.
In the years that followed the brothers met once, in New York, in 1987. But that was across the bitterest divide. Terry, by then a councillor, gave evidence for the Falklands case to the United Nations committee on decolonisa- tion. Alec, as an independent wit- ness highly prized by Argentina, gave evidence against
Now they have Just had their first proper meeting for 14 years.
Today’s
marching
orders
John Pilger
reports on the continuing Liverpool dock strike which makes its presence felt in a London march today
THE LIVERPOOL dockers march through London today. After 14 months, the dockers’ dispute is now
longer than the miners’ strike of 1384-S5 and ode of the most tena- cious in British labour history. Until recently, it was also one of the least known. But now the dock- ers’ unfashionable struggle to reclaim almost 500 jobs may be- come a toucbpaper for something their union and New Labour have
done their best to contain.
The dockers were sacked en masse by the Mersey Docks ; And Harbour Company, which has .con- trolled the port of Liverpool since it was privatised from a public trust With the Thatcher govern- ment's abolition in 1989 of toe National Dock Labour Scheme, the company demanded tbat dockers, manyln their fifties, -worked shifts of up to 15 hours and. on their days off waited by their plwnesto be summoned back to work. Con- frontation was inevitable. Al- though the company d«ue*» iLthe
“S-SJS-.m—jh
refused to cross a picket line at the oort which included sons and Sphews. in a dispute over over-
on Alec’s territory In Buenos .Aires. Thls was prompted by grief at the death of their father, whom Alec never saw after 1982. It was a warm, if shadowed, reunion. Apart from their separation, both brothers are content with, and proud of, their subsequent lives. But the contrast in their fortunes is immense. Alec, now 49, is mar- ried to Santina, with throe chil- dren, and earns £416 a month as an airline clerk.
Terry, 46, must earn around 10 times that He is joint owner of JBG, one of the most dynamic local companies formed to exploit the post-1987 Falklands “economic revolution” generated by revenue from fishery licences.
His company has a suite in At- lantic House on Philomel HID, an ultra-modern building close to the site of the old Globe Store. The current Penguin News, the is- lands newspaper, pictures the new hi-tech Norwegian freezer factory ship in which JGB has just bought a share estimated at £1.25 million. Terry hopes his next step will be into the burgeoning oil exploration business.
As a farmer councillor, he met op with Alec after attending an unofficial British-Argentine con-
time. Within 24 hours of their gariring. the jobs were advertised. When they tried to return to work a week later, they found the port gates locked. They ■ have since rejected all offers of redundancy. “What matters,” said Jimmy Campbell — who had 40 years on the docks and would have bene- fited from a pay-off — “is jobs, not just for us, but jobs for the young ones coming an.”
Their anion, the Transport and General Workers, has provided hardship money and office facili- ties. but has refused to make the dispute official. Bill Morris, the general secretary, told the TUC conference In September that he would “die for the dockers”. Dock- ers’ wives, who were prevented from speaking, replied, “Don’t die, just support us.”
Although he has been invited. Morris wOl not be inarching with the dockers today. As the dispute has endured, so it has called into question the role of the unions set up to protect vulnerable workers. This has been a striking feature of a sustained public response to my report on the dockers In Guardian Weekend three weeks ago. Morris refused to be interviewed for this, leaving his spokesman to claim that he was "legally prevented" from speaking because the dispute was unofficial.
I was advised to put my ques- tions in writing. This 1 did in a letter to Morris cm October 25. I asked him how he intended to hon- our his pledge to go “that extra mile" for -the dockers. I received no reply. I^st week Morris turned down a request to sign a Guardian advertisement supporting the dockers.
Since the Guardian piece ap- : peared, the dockers have been of- fered support reminiscent of the , spontaneous backing the miners received from the public in 1992. A shareholder in Mersey Docks And Harbour Company Is transferring
ference to discuss differences. Po- litically, the brothers still differ vehemently. Alec was asked in an interview after the meeting: “Some people would call you a traitor?” “They not only would, but have." be replied. '1 can only say that they are wrong.”
Yet it is a measure of a slight softening of attitudes in the 1990s that both agree that the post-1982 ban on Argentines setting foot in the Falklands should be lifted In tiie cause of long-term regional stability. This is an unpopular view (as yet) that is being strongly argued by a vocal minority. "If It isn’t relaxed, we in the islands are in danger of puncturing our own football,” Tory said.
He was talking politically. But the topic of footballs evoked more down-to-earth memories. These burst out when the interviewer, a younger fellow-islander, asked if the childhood of the brothers had been happy.
Terry: We were living in a colo- nial situation, don't forget. Alec and L anfi many Falkland Island- ers, were second-class citizens. We didn’t have rights. The Falk- lands were, by and large, owned, run and controlled by absentee landlords, so money wasn't about.
Award- winner Graham McMillan ... *No celebrations. If the dockers lose, we all go under’
her dividends to them; a village in Devon Is collecting far them; an artist displaying his work in Oxford is giving them the pro- ceeds; pensioners and school- children have offered their sup- port and time.
Graham McMillan, a Merseyside port worker for 51 years, has writ- ten to the TGWU calling off a pre- sentation ceremony next week at which be was to receive the union's silver medal “It’s not a time to celebrate,” he said. “We're going back to the conditions of the late forties and early fifties. If the dockers lose, we will all go under. The union has to fight" Last week the dockers’ committee presented Mr McMillan with their own award "for standing with os".
What has helped to elevate the dockers’ campaign from its Goli- ath position is the extraordinary international response, which is
The best that we could hope for at Christmas was a football Alec: Graham, you speak of my childhood It depends what you mean by childhood. Neither Tray or I had a childhood as an English child ctf 11 to 16 would I began work as a peat boy when I was nine years old I had to till peat buckets at midday or in the eve- ning and chop firewood to light the fire the next day. This was for two shillings (lOp) a week or one and six (7ttp) or something. I be- came a fully-paid employee the day I was 14 years old. The foot- ball Terry spoke about — I used to put him in goal and take shots from the penalty area. That really sums up our childhood.
Terry: That bitterness is abso- lutely common ground.
Alec: It makes me extremely happy that that sort of situation in the islands no longer exists, and that islands scholars can now reach university level In the UK, with local assistance. Those sort of opportunities in my time were totally unthought about I can say that in those 34 years that I lived in the Falkland^. England did ab- solutely nothing for the islanders. Terry: Every body is earning much higher wages than they did
expected to culminate in a "world strike” of shipping headed for or sailing from Liverpool on January 20.
Having forced the huge Atlantic Container Line to suspend its op- erations In Liverpool last July, the dockers now have the support of the American west coast long- shoremen’s union, the ILWU. sev- eral European unions and the pow- erful All Japan Dockers' Union.
Up until now the International Transport Federation, the mari- time unions’ world body, has sup- ported the dockers only “within legal bounds”. But the 1TF may be shedding its caution as key mem- bers privately favour an unprece- dented shutdown of major world i ports that would express, accord- ing to one of them, “an interna- tional labour solidarity like no other struggle in recent maritime history”.
In a scathing open letter to the ITF, one of its senior American in- spectors, Jack Heyman, wrote that a victory for the Liverpool dock- ers, "would offer an alternative to the defeatist strategy (of the Brit- ish trade union establishment) that has so far lost every port save Liverpool, much to the dismay of maritime workers around the globe ... This aristocracy of labour, while bemoaning draco- nian Thatcherite anti-labour laws — which their darling Tony Blair has vowed to uphold If elected! — actually use them as an excuse for inaction”.
Heyman. who resigned in Octo- ber, reminded the ITF that it “was launched in 1896, when British seamen sailing into strikebound ports in Holland joined striking Dutch dockers. They didn’t fax their union for official authorisa- tion or check to verify if it was legal . . . They Just did it"
It Is too early to judge if the dockers' campaign signals the be- ginning of a wider resistance to the anti-union onslaughts of the
before fishing. The census tells us most people are homeowners, own their own cars. Alec and 1 were two of those who were pretty close to the breadline in the Falklands of the 1960s. Nobody lives in pov- erty now. I am part of what is now a vibrant private sector.
Alec — after listening to this ac- count of prosperity — was asked in the interview if he regretted not living in the Falklands. He said he had decided in 1982 that his future was “on the Argentine side of the dividing line. If I chose wrong, well, that’s my problem."
In Argentina, he said, currently suffering from high price infla- tion, a “very small minority^' Is highly favoured by conditions which had developed since democ- racy replaced dictatorship in 1983. But 90 per cent of the population is suffering from economic rig- ours Imposed by the International Monetary Fund.
Were those rigours affecting his family? "Yes.” he said. " Our life- style has been drastically changed within the last two and a half years because of the internal eco- nomic situation.” So wouldn’t he have done better to have stayed where he was in 1982?
“No," he said, “I became con- scious that the Argentines, whose claim we were quick to dismiss as being totally unfounded, have a better case than we were led to believe . . . What happened is that , in 1833 [when Britain repossessed the islands from Argentina], there was a great injustice done to the Argentina government. We should pursue justice by recognis- ing that what England did then was totally unlawful. To a certain extent, we Falkland islanders are to blame for the 1982 conflict”.
Alec pinned this blame on the
1980s and the obedience of the
union bureaucracies. Certainly, the usual pejorative terms such as "extremists’’ can no longer be used to dismiss men and their families who are prepared to suffer hard- ship for a principle that now has universal application. By their action, the dockers bring into sharp focus the iniquities of casual and part-time working which today impoverish not only the docks but the service industries, manufacturing, even the profes- sions and the media.
They also demonstrate that a small number of unofficial, iso- lated workers can ignite an inter- nationalism that is said to have
died with the so-called end of his-
"indifference" he and many other Islanders had shown before 1982 to what was happening above their heads at governmental level between Britain and Argentina.
Terry cut in. “I think Alec is speaking absolute rubbish! ... What really is the issue is that Falkland islanders have been liv- ing there for 163 years. The Is- lands are for. and I think really should be for, the islanders. I would like to see the islands and islanders have some international recognition and status — but never under the flag of Argen- tina.”
Alec said he was delighted at prosperity on the islands now. But one major problem lay in a Falk- lands law which bans all holders of Argentine documents from entry. “This Is a little outdated..” Terry wholeheartedly agreed but, he stressed, "not because of the family connection”. It should be done in the interests of the whole South Atlantic.
As the meeting ended, Alec was reminded that he had spoken throughout of the Falklands as home. "WelL" he said, "Anybody bom in the islands who has left and lived outside, whether he’s in Argentina, in Germany — or at the North Pole — will still speak about the Falklands as home.’’
After the unofficial conference, Alec Betts went back to Cordoba and Terry and two other Falk- lands delegates went “home". There they repeated their argu- ments for a strictly conditional lifting of the visitors' ban, a move Argentina badly wants; in Pen- guin News this week, this brought them a barrage of flak. But the issue — like the bond between the brothers — is a story with, as yet, no end.
tory. "It was 6am on a December morning in the fiercest blizzard for 70 years," said Bobby Morton, one of four Liverpool dockers who set up a picket at the port of Newark. New Jersey just as a container ship had docked from Liverpool. “We didn't know what to expect But when we told the longshore- man coming to work what it was all about, they turned their cars around. We were dancing on the picket line, even though we hadn’t been drinking”.
The dockers' march assembles at Speakers' Corner, Hyde Park today between 12 noon and 1pm and proceeds to a rally at Conway Hall, Red Lion Square. Hoi bom at 2.30.
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shooting stars | Art forms of the century
ROALD DAHl flggfl We used to expect a literal reflection of reality. Today, great fame and fortune as |5g§r] fictions are perpetrated in its name. In the first of a new series,
Liz Jobey reveals how photography is reinventing itself
ii r*
1990, he dies.
Up . . . Last night at the Albert Hall, Dahl's take on Jack & The Beanstalk was ‘semi-staged' by the Royal Phil- harmonic Orchestra, with Joanna Lumley and Danny DeVito.
And away . . . Next week, Dahl’s Matilda, about an ESP-wiefding gamine, hits the cinema screens.
FALLING:
BUZZ UGHTYEj
Going ... Buzz, the byte-sized star of Toy Story, wins the hearts of kiddies and special-effects buffs, scoring a victory for steilar-expiorers everywhere.
Going ... So Buzz the toy is now top of Santa's list in households across the land. Only trouble is Buzz has sold out!
Go mi ... Disney announced yes- terday that a 20,000-strong ship- ment of Buzzes is on its way, due to arrive on stardate 28.1 2.96- Britain's tots are doomed to wait *to infinity and beyond' for their animated astral pal. Santa's reputation may never recover.
Lie of the lens
WHAT is a photo- graph at the end of the century: the snapshot in your wallet, the poster at the bus stop, the picture in your paper; the image on your screen, the scan of your not-yet-born baby the fruit *n’ nuts on your cereal packet, the model in your magazine, the print on the gallery wall? All these things and more should be the answer: But isn't it, really all these things and less? There are too many photographs. And every one now can be broken down into digital units, transmitted down the phone line and reconstituted on a com' puter screen thousands of miles away Even the Mona Lisa has been digitised, if the stories are to be believed, so that she can reappear
in all her virtual glory on a wall- screen in Bill Gates’s living room. There is something spooky about his drive to own the rights to all the images in the world in his personal global library; some idea that he could recreate the universe by twid- dling a few knobs and making everything look different Photography is undergoing an identity crisis similar to the one representational painting went through at the end of the 19th cen- tury, when the advance of photog- raphy both threatened it and released it from its duties to report accurately Photography has had a similar reaction, too: to turn in on itself; examine Its component parts, and look for new forms and outlets. It may not quite have the theoretics of Cubism, but digital photography
which has already killed off “wet" printing crafts and done away with any need for paper prints and nega- tives, Is the photographic move- ment of the future. The bk) certainties about what a photo- graph is have been eroded. It used to be a simple thins a record of a certain place, at a certain time; a memory to hold in your hand. Soon even the family snapshot will be plugged straight into telly With a global print and broadcast media clamouring for images every day photographs would seem to have no shortage rf outlets. But the desire for stories with broad-based popular appeal is intimating another death. News photogra- phers and photo journalists, playing by the old rules of gngBgpmgnt. find their pictures unpublished.
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Even front-page pictures in the quality press are given over mote and more to iconic portraits, or photo-montages. Its news-value usurped by television, its emotional power dulled, photographic report ing is in decline, as readers turn to the Hollywood profile or the shop- ping page. And advertising — the most sophisticated area of photog raphy today — has destroyed the last vestiges of photographic truth and produced a society of cynical visual consumers, making concep- tualistsaf usalL
No wonder the problems that undermine traditional photogra- phy — appropriation and manipu- lation. parody and repetition, visual tropes — are the very quali- ties in which post-modernism has put its faith, Ever since Andy Warhol recyled them into art, the rale of photographs has been under review Whrhol chose the photos for his multiples for their symbolic, rather than narrative power. Car crashes, electric chairs, movie stars were the push-button route to the big emotions: fate, death, love. Alter Warhol made advertising art. art declared open season on popular culture. Warhol’s films, banal paro- dies which gave ordinary people their very own Hollywood moment proved that anybody could be a superstar and vice versa. Warhol was the point at which celebrities went into the mainstream and the ordinary moved into art
Believed of narrative duties, pho- tography explored its conceptual potential One of the basic theories of conceptual art was that an art form might comment on itself. Take the American artist Cindy Sher- man. She acted out ron-af-the-mOl B-movie female roles in her famous series of Untitled Film Stills, point- ing up the parody by photograph- ing them in the style of a 1950s black and white publicity shot
From the 1970s on — as the his- tory of photography began to be accepted as a legitimate subject of study as prices for prints rose ■— the movement Warhol started gained pace. While commercial photographers were learning new skills — how to use a video camera, how to run a website, how to con- vert their pictures into digital pack- ages to sell to the new monster breed of digital libraries — photog- raphs the process, found sanctuary in the cathedrals of contemporary art
The assimilation of photography into fine art has over the past decades forced a change in the way photography is taught, looked at, sold, bought, and — irony of ironies — reproduced. One of the most telling pieces of evidence of photography's new role Is the simu- lation of rarity even of uniqueness, by restricting its ability to repro- duce. If you visit the Tumer Prize exhibition at the Tate; among the short-listed works are Craigie Hors- fleid’s black-and-white photo- graphic prints. Several metres high, their surfaces have a depth and luminosity quite nnin«» the flatness of a normal printed pic- ture. To the minimal captions at their side is added the paradoxical label- “Unique Photograph”. This is the one and only print before the negative is destroyed. Horsfield says the prints take weeks to do, he gets filthy and covered in chemi- cals, he finds it physically difficult to repeat them, and rarely wants to. But in art galleries all over Europe
and America photographic prints are being limited to editions of six, or three, or only one, and prices are being raised accordingly This rep- resents photography’s most pro- active bid yet for the values of painting: to be mads Into an irre- placeable work of art Horsfield is adamant about not being a photog- rapher and not having his pictures shown alongside traditional photo- graphic wads. He is not alone. The foreground of contemporary art has been settled by a new group of
artist-photographers. With the awk- wardness of a genre still looking for a definition, their work Is usu- ally referred to as photo-based fine art.
Their importance to the art mar- ket is reflected in the way their work is promoted by art galleries.-, by the absorption of photograph ie departments into those of fine art: by auction house selling pho- tographs as contemporary art; and by the way the art institutions have relaxed their rules of acquisition after previously relegating photog- raphy to the status of applied art.
Throughout Europe and Amer- ica, large-scale photographic works are sharing the walls of art institu- tions with master paintings. Size is just one way they distinguish them- selves from traditional photo- graphic prints. The other — and here’s the rub — is perception. These works demand the level of attention accorded to painting, partly because of size, partly because of the way they are pre- sented within an art-gallery envi- ronment. partly because of the stated intention of the artists. They do not rely on the old photographic laws of time, or place, or familiar- ity When we look at a painting, though we glance at the date and its title that is not what decides our feelings about the picture, it is pos- sible to be entranced by Degas's After the Bath without worrying about who the woman is. or where, or when. We develop a relationship
cerned. it’s a matter if lineage: they come to photography via an art-historical route that goes through Duchamp to Warhol, through Conceptual Umi and Post- Modernism . rather than the phoio- Mstoric.il route that links Stoigiitz to Cartier- Bresson and Brandt to McCullm. For them. film, video, photography and installation are all means of extending their visual language. Not surprising, then, that Douglas Gordon, this year's winner of the Turner Prize, should borrow Psycho and stretch it out to last the length of on entire day; or that Jeff Wall, one of the most highly acclaimed photo-artists, should use the values of film production and a group of actors to tvstage hut own contemporary version of Hokusai's painting. A Sudden Gust of Wind and then photograph it, compound- ing the levels of reference by mounting the resulting transparen- cies on a Large wall-hung lightbox, illuminated from within by electric, rather than painterly light. There is a lot of aesthetic and intellectual game-playing involved; but then painting has long been fond of that.
In 1995 the Tate bought A Sudden Gust of Wind (After Hokusai) for £95.000. one of a number of recent acquisitions made from the small but influential group of artists, based in Europe, the US and Canada, all of whom use photogra- phy in their work. When thp Thte showed its new acquisitions in Liv- erpool last year, most of them were
with the image because it exists in its own time and conveys its partic- ular sensuality and visual truths to us. Of course, not the least part of our admiration is wonder that the human hand and eye can produce such a thing. But if your view is that a camera Is just another tool, like brush and paint, then it is something of this relationship that photo-based fine art demands.
Traditional photographers how- ever find these perceptual distinc- tions hard to take. “All photography is conceptual art" said Peter Galassi, head of the Museum of Modem Art’s Department of Pho- tography “The differences cur- rently made between photography and so-called photo-based fine art are both Intellectually and artisti- cally untenable. Part of the reason ' for It is that it’s useftil to the market
to maintain high prices for work by \
‘artists using photography*.*
When I asked Mark Haworth- Booth, curator of photographs at the Victoria & Albert museum, what the difference was between tire photography and photo-based fine art, he said quickly ‘About three zeroes'*. Galleries In Europe and America have been achieving six-figure suras — even more in the case of Cindy Sherman whose Unti- tled Film stills were bought with seven other works by the Museum of Modem Art at the beginning of the year for a sum reported to be around SI million. In the 1980s. as prices for contemporary art soared, mmmercial galleries took photo- based works as a means of provid- ing a cheaper alternative, around the $10,000 mark. It hasn't taken long, however, for them to achieve much higher prices.
As far as the artists are con-
Froxn top . . . Craigie Horafi eld's massive prints at the Tate — his work is a reaction against the idea that photography is not art: Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Still #54. one of a series that sold for more than $1 million; and Andy Warhol Self-Portrait. 1965-67.
Warhol stuck two fingers up at traditional notions of photography, recycling photos into art
MAIN PHOTOGRV’H: MARTIN GODWIN
there, including works by Andreas Gurskj; Thomas S truth. Thomas Ruff and Be rod and Hills Becher from Germany, Japanese-born Hiroshi Sugimoto from the USA: Paul Graham and Craigie Horsfield from Britain.
But the idea of photography as art’s poor relation has never been completely destroyed. Kodak's old slogan, “You press the button, we do the rest," has made the public suspicious of claims for a photo- graph as a work of art Irritation at the limited understanding of what photography can be is why Craigie Horsfield wants to take his work outside its boundaries. He wants to mange the public response, to slow it down. And he's built the sugges- tion Into some of his pictures. Taken in the 1970s when he lived in Poland, they were not printed up until after 1988 and consequently bear two dates. He explained: "I kept bundles of small prints that could fU within one hand. I stored them in old cigar boxes. Sometimes I looked at them every day some- times after 20 years. You see the thing that matters, the ihing pho- tography may be, is not the past this story about death, this 'has been . . .’ It is the present. This per- son, here, in this place now In this It is the trace of the world and the space between you and l."
A trace of the world might be the one claim photography can still make for itself at the end oT the
aothcenturv
i rw Vumer l-rce axlubfoon. nv-h *-f?rn
Douglas Gordon’s vwrk and craigie
Horsflekhs prints, is at the Tate GoUery until January 12. The exhibition ot Amwfcan Photography. 1 890-1 965, teat the Vfctona&Afoert Museum until January 26.
1 I
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Saturday December u 1996 The
THE WEEK I 19
Short and to the point
IF YOU were of a niiTij, an irredeemably disturbed mind, you could have watched more than 17 hours of Coronation Street thiw week. The orgy began on Sunday with Granada Plus's two and a quarter hour omnibus of the previous week’s episodes drawn from the seventies, followed by four half hour instalments each weekday.
Each day there was an episode at 8am, 12 noon, 6pim and 9pm on the channel — cunningly staggered at intervals so the true addict didn't suffer withdrawal symptoms.
This week Len took Elsie to Gatsby's, Eddie tried to obtain a cart for Stan and Hilda, and Ernest applied for a new job. “Who are these guys?" younger readers may be asking themselves. Tread softly rash youth, for yon step on my memories. I can still remember the early seventies upset when Fred Gee started pulling pints at the Rover’s: not a week since has gone by without some other disconcerting novelty.
The orgy comes to a climax tonight with a three-hour spe- cial. Christmas On The Street, six festive episodes from the soap's 30-year history In between you could have caught up with Granada’s current Coronation Street output, four instalments on Sunday Monday Wednesday and Friday.
For serious enthusiasts, this is all jnst light training for the main event — Christmas Day on Granada Pins. Then there'll be an 8am episode, but from 10am to 6.30pm it will be uninterrupted Coronation Street. There will be two episodes later in the evening. You lucky people.
This is all mad, but, perversely what’s realty annoying is that there isn’t
Ahead
bya
nose
I HE TROUBLE with a
radio Cyrano De Bergerac is, to put it itly that you cant see his er. In much the same way Iters, radio conceals his straus protuberance, so can it persuade us of the caused by his m ranee, or highlight the rence between how he s and sounds?
- so 1 thought, before ing the first episode of ry Norrish's lively Radio issic Serial production of anri's play. In fact radio is leal medium for it, ing us the fake, pasted-on ird Pinocchio proboscis still seems to sprout on t stage and screen mos. In Anthony > ess’s muscular verse station, Alex Norton ps a swashbuckling ino: his cataloguing of tive uses for a large nose
a tour-de-force, and Lid be pinned to the posts of plastic surgeons
vun c.
ly Henry played bovine ic Caulfield’s . a ting play Like That
i 4). An uneducated chap redundant by the army; isits his white
ood friend Mart (Lmns r), now a successful
journalist, after an
■c of 12 years, only to lat Mark has fixed If up with a phony past,
• with black stepfather,
* of the drear reality — ig single parent mother tendency to leave Mm ajone. Caulfield used
iv to scrutinise the :xity of identity beyond leans and stereotypes, iilarly the allure of :ulture for those whites jt as surrogate blacks.
and interesting , well played and ■d with confidence, in and Dennis’s tour Harlem for
te Home About (Radio 4) iei»d other black ypes. When DehnifP™ is American pudej*** sence of white faces i®
ii betokened ite . lie apartness fro®
quite enough of the Street on our screens. In some television regions there is no longer an omnibus of the week’s Coronation Street from 1996. What kind of fblly is this? Why do Street enthusiasts have to watch in real thw* or tape four separate episodes each week, while followers of Brookside and EastEnders are well served with omnibuses? It’s unfair.
In this crazy world (we haven’t even considered how much time you could spend watching Brookside and EastEnders, past and present each week, let alone what happens to your life if you are obsessed with two or more soap operas), what chance for Springhill, one of Sky’s few commissioned programmes? Ifs only cm once a week for half an horn; which it
easy to miss, and easier still not to become addicted. True, Sky did broadcast the first five episodes in an omnibus last * month to try to ensnare viewers, but, surely; brevity is the soul of its appeaL
Watching Springhill is also, unusually for British soaps, a rather private. experience: it’s more difficult to find people to discuss the show with *h*rw jg the case with terrestrial waps. But this is the future of television viewing: the days when a workplace would teem with people who had seen the same thing on television last night is dwindling; common culture broadcasting with all its culturally homogenising effects is becoming ie# common, thank: Hilda
Spriwghfll 1w Intriguing
because it does things most soaps would not dare. Spooky incidental music heightens the mood, on more daringly dampens it- In this week's episode, for instance, there was a fight between father and son. but wistful incidental synthesiser chords undercut the drama. This was astute since the main storyline, about revelations that the Freemans’ father was a bigamist, was told in flashback — a device hardly ever used in traditional soaps — so the music supplied timely emotional distance.
Springhill started with Sue Freeman applying m«k«» up to tense pizzicato. What the music signified was not clear until the bigamy revelation was made apparent; why she was getting made up was not disclosed until the end when she turned up to be jilted at the register office by boyfriend Jamie. Xt was so self- consciously formal and cool as to be — singularly; among soaps — mannered. It may be unhealthy; but I foal an addiction coming on.
dominant America, he was ' told no, blacks had fought hard to resist white gentrification of their handsome brownstones, the most valuable piece of upcoming real estate in New York today. This was a programme full of quiet observation; In an age of grab ’em presentation, its sobriety of style was attractive.
Radio 4 is currently brimming with letters from America. In his six-part United States Of Anger, about - disillusioned Americans, Gavin Esler, the BBC TV’s punchy chief North America correspondent, often sounds as if he’B tying up a four- minute TV news package, and implicitly underestimates the similar extent of British disillusion — perhaps he’s been away from Britain too long. Last week, for example, he talked about the American workers’ obsessive fear of being laid off, as if unaware of an equally powerful fear stalking their British counterparts.
Where hut New York would you find a funniest rabbi competition? We heard two contenders — one who shouldn’t give up the synagogue job — ■ in the first programme of a new three- part series The New York Stand-up Comedy Show (Radio 4) tracking American humour from the 19S0s punchline jokesters of the Borscht Belt resort hotels via observational monologists to the present crop of improvisers. Comedy, declared Phyllis Dillex; is a hostile act, for which file essential qualification is a botched childhood.
Where but New York would you find a funniest rabbi
competition?
Programme one produced several a,niTllg!‘Tlfl dysfunctional aggressors, most with fine Brooklyn accents.
Dear Diary, once the standard Radio 4 anthology of dead writers, is now an actual diary of sorts: in the age of the video diary, radio has added sound effects. Michael Schmidt’s description of the consequences of the IRA bomb on his small Manchester Carcanet Press was freighted with feeling, but also precise and
iHominating.
A final question: can the wonderfbl Tm Sony I Haven’t a Clue (Radio 4) continue to flourish without Willie
Roshton’s boisterous exuberance?
Lyn Gardner salutes Forced Entertainment, the creators of the first pop theatre
Reality
bites
I fear the tick of a bomb Al your hair hi a fhae You ask me for a Fight To blow away these blues Run me a bath, then plug me in fm like a TV learning to swim
— From Goodnl^it on Baby Birtfs album UgAr Beautiful (1096)
Garttv Cartwright
on a triumphant homecoming for the Street Preachers
Manic
attack
The resurrection
O WELSH band has ever achieved anything like the
success of the Manic Street
Preachers, but the rood that took them there has been more tortuous than they could have ever imag- ined when they arrived cm the scene in 1990.
Back then, they wore the emblems of Arts students, their situationist slogans and existen- tial dilemmas backed by spiky gui- tar riffs. As dance music swept Britain, their rock pasturing and aggression made them look hope- lessly dated. It took the disappear- ance of guitarist Richey Edwards in 1995 to relaunch them on the nation’s pop consciousness. Here in Cardiff headlining in front of a 7,000-strong audience, they cele- brated their resurrection in style.
Igniting the audience with video images of the Poll Tax and miners' strike demonstrations, the Manics combined class-war slogans with locomotive-powered rock. Once more skilled in delivering sound- bites than songs, they are now the loudest, proudest purveyors of Welsh soul since Tom Jones.
Vocalist James Brarifield is an tmwmpm isfag singer, handling even the most carping lyric as if it were a commandment He delivered Suicide Is Painless with a tender- ness he would once have avoided, and when staging old chestnuts such as Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head, he revealed a sentimen- tality one would have neves* guessed the Manics possessed.
With Edwards gone, the band are stripped of their androgynous focal point Bassist Nicky Wire is all lanky cool to Bradfield's stocky fervour, while drummer Sean Moore hides behind his hair and kicks the beat along. Curiously for a band that generates intense musical heat, the Manics possess little sexual magnetism. But then, with lyrics that deal with genocide and self-loathing, perhaps this should not be surprising. Though a stubborn anger remains at the root of their music, a new vulnera- bility is evident The lyrical eulogy Enola / Alone carried a sense of longing across the arena.
The bond between the Manics and their fens has always been strong. And here, as the band punched out the epic, jukebox pop of A Design For Life, Cardiff’s youth pressed forward, surfing on distortion and excitement
At a time when most of their con- temporaries are busy betas hxsd- cafly cod, the Manics’ sound and Any signifies, finally feeling. It may be naive to imagine rock music can be much more than a noisy diver- sion in 1996. yet in Cardiff the Manic Street Preachers' gig was a a statement of community
A: Howfl HowH Wake It up poor dead person for we are upset and grieving angels.
B: Wake it up and thhkaD hard of this. If you don't to get up who will shout and sing songs at the stupid moon? A Who will live to In then your idiot house? '
B: Who will bang its walls ffiid blood and bruise its stairs?
A: Oh we are drunk and dependable angels and we can to raise our friends from out the dead.
— Ron Forced Entertainments 200% And Bloody Thirsty (1988)
The discovery
THEY come from the same place: Steve Jones, aka chart-topping Indie singer- songwriter Baby Bird, and Fbrced Entertainment, the theatre ensemble who in 11 years of exis- tence have defied all expectations of what can happen on stage.
If you want to be geographical, you can call that place Sheffield, where Forced Entertainment's writer/ director Tim Etchells anda group of drama graduates settled. In those days Sheffield was a dying industrial city where you could live cheaply on the dole and even record In the local, council-run studios. Jarvis Cocker was there plugging away for 15 years before he hit the big time; Jones was there too, briefly forming the performance duo Dogs In Honey recording 400 songs on a tiny four-track recorder It was hare that Rnreed Entertain- ment began to create a body cf bril- liant, uneven work unparalleled in British performance history But Baby Bird and Forced Enter- tainment share a different geogra- phy too, a place captured in the corner of your eye where the TV is always on. and someone is dying on screen or having violent sex. It is a placed piled high with Tesco car- rier bags and where there is never Elvis Presley but lots of Elvis Pres- ley impersonators. It is a flickering world of menacing thugs and drunken angels wearing cardboard crowns. It is a place littered with all the bits inside your head that you don't know what to do with.
Jones turns them into songs, his dafty surreal lyrics harnessed to painfully sweet melodies; Forced Entertainment fake the bits and transform them into a make-believe so real it gets you where it hurts.
In the company’s latest piece, the tacky and tender Showtime, a dying man covered in tinned spaghetti is insistently interrogated while two people dressed as trees squabble behind him. It is like watching Mas- termind where the contestant is hi porting to death; funny and unbearably sad at the same time.
In another sequence, a woman wearing a pantomime dog’s head with floppy ears and liquid brawn eyes meticulously plan* her sui- cide. "dose your eyes, close your fucking eyes and keep them dosed. You shouldn’t be watching this.”
But even if we dose them, the images keep rolling an the vast TV screens inside our heads. Insistent, relentless, we live in a culture that we cannot switch off In the eighties we watched Fbrced Entertainment do one show after another and we were dazed and confused. We did not know what to make of these melancholy poetic performances. “The whole performance is totally out of con- trol — there is little to eqjoy here and much to regret," declared the Independent of 200°* And Bloody Thirsty The words ams hack to haunt five years later when they provided the end lines of Marina And Lee. inspired by the Lee Har- vey Oswald mythology The more tolerant among us sat around eating frizzy salad at the IGA and bemoaned the fact that we didn’t have the vocabulary to analyse the work, that we didn't speak the same language. And in retrospect, it turns out that we weren’t listening very hard anyway Etchells knows our language
inside out the shambles on stage is precisely choreographed. You could not write the brilliant 10-minute monologue delivered by a man to whom a linking bomb is strapped at the beginning of Showtime unless you were acutely aware of all the conventions of traditional theatre.
But while Forced Entertainment are arguably masters of theatre's traditional argot, it is dear that they know a completely different language too. If they had all been bom five years later these cold war babies would probably have made pop videos, not theatre. But back in 1984 it was cheaper to make theatre. You didn't need any equipment So instead they took all the language of late-night TV movies, graffiti and overheard conversations on the bus and assembled the fragments into a panicky rollercoaster ride through urban Britain.
In doing so they have created the first pop theatre: throwaway dis- posable and chiirttaa* it is a theatre in which meaning is stumbled on almost by accident and in which identity is fractured and every care- fully honed image has a personal message for the listener that you can replay through the headphones of your mind alone in your bed- room later Like the things you see on TV it is more real than real life.
At ttieiCA, London, until December Zi. Main photograph by Henrietta Butler.
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20 SPORTS NEWS
The Guardian Saturday December 14 1996
Cricket
Liam the Hampshire all-rounder
THE decision was Liam Botham's own and probably the right one. writes David Foot. EQs progress at Hampshire last summer was modest — if artificially boosted on his debat by the tradition of the family — rather than spec* tacolar In the way some had unreasonably expected it to be.
Botham, less cocky than his father at this age and prob- ably more level-headed, took a hard look at his progress and came to the conclusion that he was going to be a better rugby centre than a cricket all-rounder.
Botham will have no inhibiting sporting icon hovering over him at West Hartlepool, having done his best to pretend that there was no psychological barrier to cross whenever be put on bis flannels.
There is no time for hanging around In the commercial world of rugby union these days. He had to make up his mind and he decided he had the physique, the heart and the talent for the game; cricket would always have been a struggle.
Nick Variey on the end of a fairytale as the legend’s son opts for the oval ball
Botham junior settles for rugby union career
THE "like lather, like I first-class debut and five | "Mark believes I am worth But Ring, the former son" fairytale is not to wickets against Middlesex. I this contract and I'm deter- back, cast doubt on this, be after all. Liam have always had a slight pref- mined to prove him right. 1 virtually Impossible to Botham, son Of Ian. erenee for ruvbv. I haw informed Hamnahire of hine summer and w
THE "like lather, like son” fairytale is not to be arter all. Liam Botham, son of Ian, has decided to pursue a career in rugby union rather than cricket.
Only months after a first- 1 class cricket debut fbr Hamp- shire in which he took five wickets he signed a contract yesterday to play rugby for West Hartlepool.
The 19-year -old, who also scored on his senior rugby debut in October, said: “1 have enjoyed both cricket and rugby -since my school days and perhaps everyone as- sumed I would concentrate on cricket While it wasn't an easy decision to make and I will always remember my
first-class debut and five wickets against Middlesex. I have always had a slight pref- erence for rugby. 1
"I've discussed the position with not only my Gather, who | has never pushed me to fol- low either route and bas ex- 1 pressed his support whatever I decided, but also my profes- sional advisers."
Watched by Mark Ring, West Hartlepool's director of rugby, Botham, a centre, signed a three-year contract and said his immediate aim was to improve his fitness.
“This Is my second year at West and, with the game go- ing professional. Mark and 1 had to decide whether I was good enough to play at this level,” Botham said.
"Mark- believes I am worth
this contract and I'm deter- mined to prove hi™ right. I have informed Hampshire of my decision and they have wished me weH”
His career with the county, with whom he signed a two- year contract earlier this year, may not be over, how- ever. Tim Tremlett. the direc- tor of cricket and coaching, said: "We are retaining his registration forms and hope he will play for us at some stage on a iimirori basis. The rugby season Is becoming more and more like the foot- ball season, with less and less time off, but we have dis- cussed the possibility that he can play for us during the close season."
[ But Ring, the former Wales I back, cast doubt on this. "It is virtually Impossible to com- bine summer and winter sports at a professional level these days," he said.
Botham’s cricket debut could have been scripted for his father. Initially not selected, he arrived late at the game but took five for 67 against Middlesex, including the wicket of Mike Gatting. But he took only three more wickets in the last three i games of the season to finish with an average of 33.50 from 55 overs.
His batting was less impres- sive: from three Innings he managed 31 runs with a top score of 30, also against Middlesex.
Liam the West Hartlepool centre
WHILE admitting he had chosen mgby partly beca use he no Unger wished to see the words "son of behind his name In newspaper reports, Liam Botham strevscrt that in his own judgment he has a better future us u ruKb> player than as a cricketer, writes Tim HWfodb On the evidence of his recent debut for West Hartlepool he is probably right, although he Is not currently among the top three centres at the club- ^ „ . .
In a one-sided match against an under-strength Haw ira the most striking feature of Botham’s performance was his excellent Handling skills- He timed his posses to per- fection and was instrumental in setting up several of the game’s tries. .
He is quick rather than blisteringly fest, strong In tin* tackle and hag clearly been well schooled in the basics, giving the overall Impression that he would Instinctively do *h» right thing. ,
All Botha™ lacks, as a lean six-footer, is a little of you- know-who’s beef.
Tour match: Queensland v England A
Hollioake in mood fbr last-day antics
Andy Wilson finds a few bright sparks offsetting the boredom in Brisbane
Adam hollioake is
remembered by Ian Greig. the former Surrey captain, "as a bit of a tearaway1’ when he
first arrived at The Oval Now the marketing executive fbr the Queensland Rugby League, Greig yesterday saw the new, improved Hollioake captain- ing England A for the last time on a tour which has gone so well that the young all- rounder must have joined the abbreviated list of possible successors to Mike Atherton. 1 Yet It was the larrikin still I within Hollioake which allowed England to bow out on a suitably upbeat note, even though they had the wrong end of a tedious draw with Queensland. He led the team in a football-style salute to a non-existent crowd at the start of play, gave Anthony McGrath the chance to take his first first-class wicket and joined his team-mates in an impromptu picnic lunch on the outfield during the first drinks' break.
"It’s been the most difficult game I've had to captain, purely for motivation,” said Hollioake. "Every single day has been incredibly nonde- script and we knew after the second day that it was almost certain to be a draw. So I wasn’t going to be the strict disciplinarian, especially at the end of a long tour.”
But Hollioake ensured there was enough serious cricket to prevent the tour ending in farce. Craig White took the second new ball early in the day and returned after lunch to secure career- best figures of six for 66.
The Yorkshire all-rounder tapped the first-class tour bowling averages with n
wickets at 16 apiece, in addi- tion to hitting important half- centuries against South Aus- tralia and Victoria. White is staying in Australia for his 27th birthday on Monday but will return to England as a genuine contender for next summer’s Ashes series.
Hollioake has also had a fine tour although, captaincy aside, his best performances have been in the one-day games, averaging little more than 20 in the longer matches. He, too, is staying on in Aus- tralia, but not for long: an op- eration is pending an a left' an- kle injury, which has been affecting his bowling for two years, and he wants to be fit to push for a Texaco Trophy place against Australia.
Dean Headley, another of the tour's successes, also faces hip surgery during the next month but there are no such worries for Mark Butcher who was determined to enjoy himself on the final day. He bowled a useful spell of lively medium pace before lunch and then cruised to 47 from 36 balls when England launched their meaningless second innings. j
Stuart Law set two men deep for the hook but Butcher , flailed away regardless; send- ing one ball between the field- ers for six, the next fine for four. He passed 600 runs for the tour, finishing with an av- erage of over 50 in the first- class games, but fell short of his eighth half-century in 14 innings when he slipped and dislodged a ball.
Of the other batsmen. McGrath and Michael Vaughan have struggled in the first-class games and failed again yesterday. Jason Gallian was simply happy to
be playing after a trip plagued by injury while, of the other two Lancastrians, Warren Hegg has been more consis- tent than Glen Chappie.
Owais Shah haded a little after a blistering start to the tour but. like Andrew Harris, be will have benefited from the experience as he heads for home and his mock A-Ievels. Peter Such, despite missing all three first-class games, and Mark Ealham, still troubled by a fractured index finger, have, predictably, let no one down.
Hollioake and the tour man- i ager Mike Gatting have been eager to stress the team ethic. 1 that "everyone has chipped in”. But the last word is reserved for Ashley Giles, not only as the tour's leading wicket-taker with 22 but also for the animated nature of his high-five with Barry Rich- ards, the legendary South African batsman and out- going Queensland chairman, on being named Man of the Match:
ENGLAND A» First innings 230 (M A Butcher 72: Creavey 6-70].
QUEENSLAND
FHt tawing* 1 over night 195-5)
M P Mott c Hegg b White — 73
fW A Snccombe c Hegg b Whits 23
S A Prastwidge not out ........ __ 22
B N Creevey c J^ollloaka b White O
P W Jackson ib« b McGrath , 4
S A Muller b While 1
Extras (Ibid. wl. n027). — .. 33
Total 11202 overs) -S88
M of (defeat* coot 232. 275. 277. 233. BowHngi Headley 9-1-30-0: Chappie 23-7-59-1:- Ealham 5-2-16-1; Giles 16-4-32-0: White 29.2-5-66-6. Hodioake 12-7-29-1: Gallian 14-3-33-6: Vaughan 2-0- 9-0; McGrath 4-0-6-1; Butcher 6-3-6-0.
M A Butcher hit wicket b Preatwfdge 47 M P Vaughan c Maher b Muller 1
A McGrath c S b Muller 18
J E R Gallian not out ... 12
■A J Hollioake b Prastwldge lO
C White not out 11
Extras {bi. Ib4. nbZ) 7
Total (lor 4, 35 overs) 108
FOB of wrtokTW 13. 59. 66. 62.
Bowling: Muller 0-3-26-2; Creevey 5-0-33-0; Maher 5-0-1 1-0: Prastwldge 5-0-16-2: Jackson 6-2-6-0; Mon 4-1-6-0: Secoombe T-1-O-fl
Umpires: P D Parker and J F Torpey.
Larrikin to leader .. . Adam Hollioake bas emerged on tour as a captain of distinction
PHOTOGRAPH; SHMJN BOTTBRJLL
Cheer for England as Symonds carries the drinks at MCG
A DOUBLE Uft for England I Academy — the one well [ an the trot after Ian Harvey j he could still change his mind emerged from yesterday's beaten recently by England A and Darren Lehmann added — or have it changed for him
#*emerged from yesterday's one-day matches in Australia. Australia A — significantly, minus Gloucestershire's Andrew Symonds — had an easy victory over the increas- ingly hapless West Indies; and the Australian Cricket
Academy — the one well beaten recently by England A — ambushed Pakistan by 13 runs as they warmed up for tomorrow's World Series match against Australia in Adelaide.
At the MCG, West Indies suffered their seventh defeat
on the trot after Ian Harvey and Darren Lehmann added | an unbeaten 132. Harvey’s straight six off Kenny Benja- min taking a strong A side to the required 218 for the loss of only four wickets.
Symonds was only 12th man, which in theory means
he could still change his mind — - or have it changed for him by the TCCB and bis county — and play in England as an English man next summer.
• Sri Lanka have named the former Australia Test player Bruce Yardley as coach in preference to Allan Lamb.
Rugby League
Holgate in Nines limbo
Paul Fitzpatrick
STEPHEN HOLGATE. who will play for Wigan Warriors next season, has controversially been named in Andy Gregory's squad for next month's Super League World Nines tourna- ment in Townsville. Australia, despite last week's agreement that no more than one player horn each club would make the trip.
Gregory, the Salford coach who is also Great Britain's coach for the trip, has selected Wigan's Andy Farrell and included Holgate. who last week agreed a move from Workington to Central Park.
However Mark Newton, a Rugby League spokesman, said: “Technically Holgate is still a Workington Town player and they hold his reg- istration with the League.”
Wigan, who owe Salford £10,000 as part of a deal which took Terry O'Connor to Cen- tral Park in 1994, claim the cheque is in the post. Once Salford have received it. said Paul Harrison. Wigan’s pub- lic relations officer. Holgate becomes a Wigan player. "Great Britain will then have to review the squad on the basis that only one player ftom each club should be selected," he added.
Willie Morganson, a 24- year-old centre from North Queensland Cowboys, has Joined Sheffield Eagles Ian Sherratt, the 31-year-old Old- ham Bears prop, is moving to Wigan Warriors for around £30,000.
WORLD NINES 9QUJUk PAnoft (Wlgjn capt), S|iran« l Bra moral Naylor I Salford), tangtoa (Otafiam). BanOa* (Halifax). Smltt (C (rat Inf ora). Sanior (Shefflettl). IWhM (Western Reds). Batts [Auckland) Canataghom (St HoionsV SotaBmrp* (Warrington). Hflday [Leeds). Holgate (Workington Town). Tollett (London).
Weekend fixtures
(3 0 unless idled)
(a I = all-tick el)
Soccer
FA CARLING PREMIERSHIP
Leeds v Tottenham —
Liverpool v Middlesbrough —
Wimbledon v Blackburn
Tomorrow
Sunderland v Chelsea (4.0)
WORLD CUPi Europaan OaaSfytaoi Orotgi Fhro: Cyprus v Bulgaria Taraor- lOW! Israel v Linemtaurg (461. Groap Star Spain * Yugoslavia. Group Sow Belgium v Holland: Wains v Turkey iMauonol Stadium. Cardiff) droop Bgm FYR Macedonia v Romania. Group Ntaa- Northern Ireland * Albania (Windsor PV Beftasl). Portugal v Germany.
EUROPEAN U-2-1 CSHIPi QaoMWog
Group Fhnoj Cyprus v Bulgaria: Israel v Luxembourg Group Batata FYR Macedo- nia v Romania.
FA VASE; TWnl rounds Brigg Tn V Tow Law Tn; S Shields v BeOlIngton Ter. Louth
Utd u Whitby Tn. Du roton FB v HoBuir Old
Boys; Tetley Walker v Traftord. HaJiam v N Ferrtoy UW. OiUtmough Tn v PoiMan Vic; ossefl Alb V Nontwicn Tn: Vouluii GM v Mosstey: Gedllnq Tn v Durham C: HucfcnaJI Tn v Newcasbo Tn: Woodbrtoge Tn v Hat- Stead Tn. Hinckley Ath v Stamford AFC; Oadtry Tn v Cogcnhoa UbL Spalding Utd v Bridgnorth Tru Barking v Saffron Walden Tre Ndrtrmrood v Harlow Tn: Htafon » Met PUflce, Stewarts A Lloyds V Southend Manor: Col- lier Row & Romford » Braintree Tn. Wisbech Tn v Dtes Tn. Concord Regie v Gmewrii Bor Arkrsoy Tn v BoMmern St Mfcnmta: Burgess Hill Tn v Bemerton Hth Hsrtaoutns: Bridgwater Tn v Taunton Tn; Mongotsfleld Utd v Chippenham Tn: Tiverton Tn v Poace- haven a TcHoomba. First Tower Utd v Reading Tic Burnham tr wtutmanis Tic Heme Bay v Sainsti Utd. Bartsusd Am » Truro C. Thatcfum Tn v Wlmboume Tic
UNIBOND LEAGUE: Piomlar: Accring- ton Stanley v Gutselay; Alfreton Tn v Cot- wyfl Bar Barrow v Buxton: Blytti Spartans v LOOK Tn: Boston Utd v Runcorn: Emley v Charley; Kncmstay v Bishop Auckland: Lancaster v Gainsborough: Spennymoor r Marine: Wlnaicnd Ula i Bomber Bridge; WIDon Alb v FriNday. nut A&hton Utd v Lincoln Utd: Congletnn Tn v Workington; Cunson Ashton v Wniiley Bay: Eastwood Tn v Drnyisdon; Flufon v Atherton LB, Gretas v Harrogate Tn: Leigh v Mattock Tn; Naflterflold v Bradford pa. Warrington Tn v Parsley Ceinc.
DR MARTENS LEAGUE! Premier: Ash- lord Tn v Dorchester. Atherctane v Choimaterd; Burton y BakDock Tn. Cam- bridge C v Gres Icy hws; Crawley Tn v
Cheltenham; Gloucester £ y SHtlngboume;
Halesowen v Kings Lynn; Hastings v Now- part AFC: Salisbury u Gravasend & N; Sud- bury Tn v Merthyr Woaoster C v Nunea- ton UUfeMfc Bedwonn UW * Dudley Tn; Corby Tn v Bristol Tn; Grantham Tn V Stafford Rngra; Hinckley Tn v Rounds Tn. Rothweii Tn v Tamworth. Shapshed Dy- namo v RG Warwick. Solihull Bor v IDus- tan Tn; Stourbridge v Eve* hum Utd; Sutton Coldfield Tn v Reddltch UBL VS Rugfiy V Paget Rngre MuBurii! BtoMey v Mar- gate; Ctnoenord Tn v Buckingham Tn; Danfort v Havant Tn. Fisher Ath Ldn * st Leonards: Fleet Tn v Clrettoa&ur Tn; For- aal Green v Farahwn Tic Newport ttoVrt v Witney Tn: Tonbridge Angola » Vela Tn; Water Joov ms y Cicvedon Tn: weston-S- Mare * Trowondoe Tn: Weymouth v Ertth
& Belvedere.
NATIONWIDE LEAGUE First Division
Barnsley v Tran mere
Birmingham v West Bram raw waned Bolton v Ipswich -
Bradford C v Reading _posippned
Charlton v Port Vale _ _____
Norwich v C Palace '
Oxford Utd v Shelf Utd . —
Portsmouth v Huddersfield
QPR v Southend -
Stoke v Swindon
Wolverhampton v Oldham
Second Division
Bournemouth v Mill wall
Burnley y Brentford - - Gillingham v Bury -
Luton v Crewe
Notts Co v Rotherham . ...
Plymouth v Shrewsbury
Stockport u Peterborough
Walsall v Watford
Wycombe v Chesterfield
York y Wray flam Tomorrow
I Bristol C v Bristol Rvrs
Third Division
Brighton v Hull
Cambridge Utd v wiq«n I
Chester v Darlington
Fulham v L Orient '
Hereford v Carlisle - — —
Lincoln v Northampton
Mansfield v Colehwwfur i
Rochdale v Hartlepool —
Scunthorpe u Exeter
Torquay » Scarborough
teas LEAGUE, Prowler ptotaiem Ayles- bury v Yeaning: Boreham Wood v St Albans; Bromley v Hendon. Dag & Red v Oxford City: Grays v Sutton utm Harrow Borough » Cherts ey Tn; HUchln v Bishop's Stanford: KingMonlon v Enfield: Staines v Dulwich: Yeovil v Heyttodgo. Rnt Dtw- tafOMr Basingstoke Tn v Leyton Pennant: Borthamsted Tn v Bognor Rage Tn; Con- vey Island v Aldershot Tn; Croydon v Uxbridge; Maidenhead utd * Whywlaale: Marlow y Cheslwn Utd: Malesey v Hamp. ton; Thame Utd v Barton Rvrv Tooting 6 Mitcham utd v Walton & Hera ham. Wo- kingham Tn v Abingdon Tn: Worthing v Biller icay Tn. Second DhrMon; Bedford Tn v Hongariord Tn; BraelaiaO Tn v Hemd Hempstead; OiaUom SI Pettw v Egrunt Tn; Doridrig v CheshUR Wembley v Horsham: Windsor & Eton v Wttham Tn: Wlvenhao Ti»
V Wars. Third Dhbkn Avdey * Kings- bury Tn, E Thurrock Uld v Epsom & Ewell; Rackweli Hot v camoefley Tre Tring Tn v Hornchurch; WsaMstons v daprarc Win- gen 6 Finchley * Southall.
N-W COUNTIES LEAGUE: Fkil He ■steal Blackpool Rvra v Maine Ra. Cri th- aw v Atherton Col; Dnrwen v Si Helens Tk Eastwood Hanley <i Penriw. Kiasgrpvs Am v Cfudderton. Gknsop NE v Burs- Cough. Prescoi Codas v Bootle: Salford C v RosseAddie ULd.
FESBUTIOH BBEWBRV HOWIHWUi LEAGUE: First Ptvtetani BUUrgham Syn v Crook Tn; Chester Le Street v Seaftam ns. Corns!) v Mutton. Durham C v Tow Law Tre Whlektiam v Stodtran.
WOBIHEMH COUNTIES EAST MtAIMIBb Premier OMitac Dsnaby UW v Armth- otps Wet); Cdassboughton Wen ■» Boipor Tn; Halfistd kfeta v AsWsId Utd, Uvw- sedge v Arnold Tn; Pickering Tav Moray MW; Thackley * Selby Tn; Pontefract Cots v Oases Tn.
TENNENTS SCOTTISH CUP First round
Albion v Forfar
Huntly v Clyde
BELL’S SCOTTISH LEAGUE Prettder Division Aberdeen v Motherwell -
Hibernian v Dundee Utd
Kilmarnock v Hearts
Rallh v Celtic raxcoonsn
Hangers v Duntermline
SCkEMFIX □ ERECT LEAGUE] Promter Divfatowi Backweil Uld v Chard Tn: Brisl- ing fan v Bristol MF; Bsmstapls Tn v Weateury Lfld. Elmore v Bndpart Tortlng- tor v Odd Down Atfl Lw PhiM%]» Cta Psulton Rvra v B hi hoc Subon: BMeford v Devizes Tn.
s-d CO«KTn=B (ns uni B3S staled): Pint DhtoME Cambridge Utd v Tottenham: CMAaaa t UHlvmlv. Fulham v Partemeuth: Ipswich y Gfiflnglwm. L orient v Charlton Ath: Norwich C v Arsenal: Weal Ham v Southend utd. Second: Colchester DM v Reading |12.0). Crystal Palace v Wycombe: Luton Tn v Bristol C; Oxford Utd v Brigtifan: Southampton v Bristol Rvra; Swindon v Boumorpomn, Totteanapi . v Brantford; WSnWedon v BamaL . '
FA! Mjnrotuu. IJ40UE- R—lK Ofv- Wm Finn Harps v Cork City {7 30): SKgo Bowers v SI Patriaa Ath P30). Tomor- row: Bohemians v Bray Wntfrs: Shamrock Rvra v Derry C: (JCD v She! bourns.
FA WOMEN’S PREMIER LEAGUE) i tonkmal DMatam Arsenal v Evetten (20): Croydon * Southampton (2.D): Don- casmr v Tran mere Rvra (2.0); Liverpool v Wembley: MIBwaH V Ilkeston Tn (2.0)
Rugby League
NATIONAL CONFERENCE LEAGUB Pnwnter DhWom Bovwrley v Wigan St Patricks (20): Egrerronl v Soodleworth ■ Ujm. Haworth v Dudley Hill [Znv. Loch Lane V wodston (2 J0)i Ottmam St Armos v Leigh Miners (20). Hrahr Aakam v Outton (20): Borrow Island v Wigan St Judas IS oj; East Leads V Mb ken (2-0). Eastmoor * Walney Central (230): Lolgh East v Motograen t2Xtl: Thomhlfl v Biadtbnnlc <201. Second FaBtharatona Amateur v York Acorn (2.0J: New Earswk* v FtedNH (2.0); Normanton v Dewsbury Moor (2J»; Owndon v Shaw Grass (2.0).
Bask«tftnfl
BUDWBSER LEAGUE: Thames Valley V Manchester (601; worthing v Leicester (8 0). Tomenwnn Neuicwtee v Derby (5J«. London Towers v Shenefd (7.15). T-UV TROPHY: Hemal & Wacom v Play- I boy TV (7.30). Tomorrow? Bntttegham v Hemdl & Watford (7.0).
lee Hockey
PREMIER UEAOtMh Slough v GUMtord (5 JO): Telford v Swindon (7.30). Tomor- row, Guildford v Swindon (LO); Stough v Tuft or a (630); SoUhgll v Petertwrmjgh (701.
HQMHaw PREMIER UAGUh Dum- fries « Blackburn (730): Palate* v Cesde- reagh (7.0); WMHey v File «U0L Tmnor- rowi Fite v Dumfries (630); Uumyfleid v Blackburn (8 JO): WtUKey v Paisley l&30). TOUMTOW
INTERNATIONAL CHAUBNM Or oil Britain v UnlveriUty of Manitoba (6.0. Blackburn).
SUPER LEAQUfi Ayr * Newcastle (BJ30).
SCOTTISH LEAGUE l First Division
Dundee v Stirling
Falkirk v Gr Morton
St Mirren v Partick
Second Division
Brechin v Queen of South
Dumbarton v Hamilton
Livingston v Ayr
Stenhousemulr v Clyde BS
Stranraer v Berwick..—
Third Division
Albion v Rees County — — BS East Stirling v Cowdenbeath .
Forfar v Alloa — 09
Inverness CT v Montrose — Queen's Par* v Arbroath
Hockey
NATIONAL. LEAQUB Proratar DhMom
East Qrinsteod v Hounslow (1.30, Saint Hill): Bouttigota v Teddlngton C2J0. Broom- flalo Sett). Tomorrow] Cannock v Guito- tard (£j0. Hathertno)-. Havant v Surbtfon (2-1S. Havant COI).
Rrrt . PMriaB Edgbaaton v Crostyx (130): Stouroon v Baaston (1 0). Tantr- n mr Doncaster v Hull (2.0J: Sheffield v
Lomu (lit).
SCOTTISH IHTDOOR LEAGUE (S JO, Bells SC Perth).
REGIONAL LEAQUESk North: Ban Rhyd- dfng v Swalwell: Chaster v Norton. Formby i v Ramgartw. Nsaton v-Tlmgarley; S Bank- | an v Southport SpringflaMB v Harrogate. Sautta ABhtord v Tonbridge Wells; Beck- ] on ham v CIHchester; Bountamouth v Ram- gariila; Fareham v Woking ham: Gora Court « O WurtgrtUane. Hampstead v High Wycombe: Maidenhood v Anchor! ana: Old kings v Spencer Richmond v Woking; Winchester v Wbnbtedoa.
EAST INDOOR LEAGUE (AJdenfiam sch. Today 12-30; Tomorrow 0.30): Btueharta, Chelmsford. Fords. Old Lmtfjfttomnrjs. Spalding. Sr Albans.
MBIT cum Aylesbury v WGC: Bed- ford v 31 Naots: Bridgnorth v Boumvtue; Chsarerfleia v Burton: Harrow v Hendon; Heraford v Atmondsbury; Lydnay v Cardiff, Weoneabury v era a Gcrtratt Wost Wilts » Rotrinaona.
mmaes reckmal leahubsi East:
Camas C.v WGC; Kuiostan v Bury St Ed; Ipswich v BexMyftaaDt; Sauenoaka v Ashford
Sautta City of Portsmouth v Dulwich: Horsham v Winchester; Southampton v Hantfsatoad; Wlnehmore HD) v Tiihw Hill; Vlforthlng v Reading.
WOMEN'S CLUBS: SAC v Newport Bed- told v West Witney. Exeter v Yale; Glob C V West Bromwich; Old Loughunians v Read- ing; Worthing v Woking. Tomorrow] 6t Fogarn v RecHand-
BRITISH AEROSPACE BHQLISH SCHOOLS CHAMPIONSHIP! North
(10.0. Stanley. PKSlaekpooJ),
Tomorrow •
ENGLISH INDOOR CHAMPtONBWPS: Mifflin ns qnfifHr [9XJ0. The Glades. WddermlnsWr): Croup A (9^0): John Player, Kfulsa: N Stotts. Stouiport Crotto B (2.0): Barton! T. Leek. NotUng- ham. Often "WW.
RSfineswTATm on. Clraneesteri- Engtend U-16 * West LM8
AEWHA PLATE Seooad round.
VAUXHALL CONFERENCE
Dover v Northwich
Not on ooapom Farnborough v StougtV Gatealwad v Bath: Halifax v Morecambe; Hedneeford v Keyes: Kidderminster v Ket- tering: Rushden A D'mondsji Bromcgrove; Southporl v Altrincham; Stalybridge v Macclesfield; Stevenage v Tafloro. Waning v WOklng. '
Rugby Union
SAVE 1 PROSPER international;
England v Argentina (Twickenham). INTERNATIONAL NATCH: Scotland v Italy (X30. MurayfMd).
TOUR MATCHr Emerging Wales v South Africa A 12.30. Swansea).
REPRESENT ATTVKMATCHi Webb Pres- ident's U21 v Natal U-Z1 (1.0. Swansea). ROYAL AMD SUN ALLIANCE COLTS COUNTY FINAL: E Midland Cola v Kent Cora (1JL Twickenham).
SWALBC CUP (220 untess StaMtfl: Firili roonct Abarcarn v VstradgynlalK Bedwas v Aboroynoir. Btertcwood v Mrwaun; Croas Keys v Tonyratoli; Feflnfosi v Naroarffi; , Kidwelly v Carmarthen Quins: Llandovery v Bircftgrove; uanirtsam v Dinas Powys; i Maastag v Abaxraon: Mountain Ash v 1 Qiifscn Goch; Newcaztfa Erfifyn v Rasol- van: Pencoed v Gfyntauun; Panygralg V Tredegar: Pontycymmer y Ahargevernty; Ponlyoool v DoTgetteu: Pyfe v Carmarthen Am; Rhymney v Ammanford (2.0): South Wales PoHca v Bonymawn; WMtUnd *
Buiim Worts.
MSURANCe CORPORATION LEAGUE 12J3DY Hrat Dtatetara Biackrock College v Old Wesley; Dungannon v Ballymena: In- stonlans v St Mary's Collage: old Belve- dere v Young Munster; Old. Craeeent v Lanadovme: Shannon v Cork Constitution; Terenure Call v Gerryowen. Second Mr- Estate Bective Rangers v N1FC: DLSP * Dolphin; Derry v Moidotown: Malone v Ctomart: Sunda/« Wall v StoRtee: UCC v tdgitflefd: WoiKJarers * Graystones. COUNTY tTSHIPi Sotdta Pool Onos Surrey v Oxtordshire (2.15. imbar Govt). Pool Twer Devon v Middlosax (2-30. Bldft- tord): Somerset v Bucklnghemshlra (2. IS, Bridgewater). Pool Threw Eastern Counties v Dorset * Wilts (2 JO. Braintree): Hampshire v Bericsrrira (2.15. Basing- stoke). Pool Pour: Cornwall v Gloucester- shire (Z30, Rodrufh): Sussex v Kara (2.15. Worthing). Nortta Port Qm East MW- I arete v Lancashire (2-30. Bedford); Leices- tershire v Cumbria (2JKL System). Pool
Tom Notts, Lines & Derby v Cheshire (23B Newark): WBnNdtoMra v NorttUim- bsrland (Rugby). Pool Throe) North Mid- lands v Voreahlra (£30, Stourbridge): Staftardamre v Durham (ZJD. Burton). AHCLO-WBUH CUP: Pool ZB: Orrall V Newport (2.0).
CLUBS: Aapotria v Panrilh (2.30); Beth y WauitBM (1.0): BratJtort s, Bin^ey y< Harrogate [2.15): Cambartey v Basing- stoke (1301: Corstorptene v Abenfaan GSFP jllfl); QHK v Krimamock (113); Glaflgow Aeads v Gordortana (1 1.0J: Grangemouth v Bigger (11.0); Haddington v Dunfermline (11D): Leeds v Note ng hem; London Irian v London Scottish (12.0); North Rlbbfaedafo v Whariedale (2.18): Plymouth v Torquay 12,30); Proeton Orase- noppera v Hull lortlsne (2.15); Reading v Henley I2.1S); Richmond v London welsh 111-30); Sandal v Middlesbrough (2.19: Sheffield v Motley (2J0t Stirling County * Avr (11.01? vale of Lurie v Fykte (Z30): walsan v Stoke (2-30): Waterloo v Bo*- ougnmulr (230): vte«on-S-Mare v Taunton (1X30): Wo mooter v Spartans (230); Hav- ant v High Wycombe [2-30 C Merthyr v Cardin (130). Toroerrew. Masetay « Qloucaetan W Harttepooi v Newcastle.
Sport in brief Results
Hockey
Sports Awards ,
William Wftl last night sus- pended betting on the winner of this year’s BBC Sports Per- sonality of the Year award after a caller claiming to work for the BBC told them that Damon Hill had already gathered more votes than all the other contenders added together, with Steve Redgrave second. The BBC dismissed as "laughable" the notion of the call being genuine.
Snooker
Nigel Bond, the world No. 5, saw his $-0 lead cut to 3-2 . before be rallied to beat Mark Davis, ranked 50 places lower. 5-2 in the quarter-finals of the German Open at Osnabrnck. writes Clioe Eoerton. Bond plays Stephen Hendry or Ron- nie O’Sullivan this evening. The other semi-final, between John Higgins and Alain Robi- doux. starts this afternoon.
I Hockey
Pakistan will play Nether- lands, the Olympic champi- ons, In the Champions' Tro- phy final at Chennai (the former Madras) tomorrow, writes Pat Rowlett. The hold- ers Germany beat Spain, the Olympic runners-up, 4-S but Pakistan denied them a final place by healing India 3-2 in this round-robin event for the world's fop six. Netherlands beat Pakistan 2-0 on the open- ing day and are unbeaten.
Boxing
The former undisputed heavyweight champion Rid. dick Bowe feces a make-or- break rematch at Atlantic City tonight with Andrew Go- lota. the 26-year-old Pole who battered him around the ring at New York's Madison Square Garden in July, only to be disqualified for repeated low blows. In the rioting that followed, 22 people were in- jured and 18 arrested.
Rugby Union
CHAHPIQMB TROPHY iMadlat). HwwHteta Pakistan 3. India 2; Nether- lands 1. Australia 1 . NettwrtartdB and Paki- stan qualify tor final.
Ml ritTERNATTONAL: Scotland 41. Italy 16.
CUJSta CirriUik Glasgow Soutttern v HlllheadfJordanMlL
COOLUM CLASSIC (Coolum. Aua): ■■Cloud round Inters (Aua unless stated): 1*6 R Pampung 69, 67. 1ST a Chalmers 71, 66c S Appleby 68. 69 ISO p Lorrmrd 07. 71. 139 M Roberts 71. 68: W Grady 06. 73: S Leanay 7a 87: M Long (NZ) 72. W. A Pointer TV 06. 140 E Boult (K2) 71, 69: D OIk 72, ea 141 P Chapman 67. 74. 142 B King 68. 73; S Robinson 70. 72; C Jones 7D. 72; j Cooper 7a 72.
Baskstball
NBAs New York 90. Golden State 7fc Hous- ton 115, Detroit SR Milwaukee too. Seattle 37: Utah 87. Phoenix 95-, Portland 88. Van- couver 7S; LA Cilflpere 97, San Antonio 94; Sacramento BS. Delias 86.
Chess
LAS PALMAS TOURNAMENT! Ran) ffloroi V Kramnik (Rue) K A Karpov (Bus) a Kasparov (Rua) K. v Anand (Ind) t v Tbpatav (Bull 0, V hodousk (Ufo> «aw«wgM Anand, Kasparov at Karpov, Kramnik. Ivanchuk 2: Topalov t. COMMONWEALTH CHAMPIONSHIP (Cafoutta): Round efotit iMHlm P Mih- r^ntn (itto) 6X: J Sriram (Ind) 6; C McNab Oeoe. * Rahman (Bomtodesli). P Thln- ■ay. V Kosfty. L Ravi. J Gokhale. 3 Vljoya-
^,^5***“ A KoM8n
Cricket
ONMAY MATCHES, Mefcourate Wl_.
tadtaa 217-6 (60 overa, 6 Cttamlarpaul 72).
Ajsirwia A 218-4 (444 overs. I Harvey I 67no. D Lehmann 6teio). Aurtralta A wok & •**«». ArietaUa. Australian I
ST mS. £5ndJ?f?y . 24&"6 150 ovara: M “BWtte Ptedstan 23S (48.3 ovara- z Bald 61. S Anwar 56, Smltti 3-*0. p^dq M2). Australian Cricket Academy won av 13 nine. '
SUPSRSPORT SQOS& DuDm (day taol: Boland im and 66-2. Natal 188(0 Btataf«etti5p; Wiliams *-*7, Mlllns F'M stale
W-T (B Wppenaar SO. L Mlldnaon 7S. C Craven 63no| v Grlquatend West Cm* . Town (day one); Border ?io (M Boucher
Vh Westef" PrtWnco B7-6 (m'nubTS I
issrsrpr*-ff onB^ Tran>vaHt
3W-8 (0 Lalng 128. A Hall 60) v Eastern
Ice Hockey
PREMtm LEAGUE: Swindon 6. Slough 2. NHL: Boston 4. Now Jersey 7: Detroit 6. Chicago 2: PMJadetpWa 1 Hartford Z Tampa Bay 2. Edmonton 2 (qci: Leo Ange- lee 1. Calgary 5.
Swimming
Snooker
■N lOanabruck). O— ta.
I (Eng) to U Davie (Eng) 5-SL
■UnoKAN SHORT-COURSE CSHIPS (RosuckK Ptaafcw Hoa: flora broart-
<SW8J 2 r TBaec 2. J Kruppa (Gat) 27.77: 3. D Malufc iCXri 2? gj. 8 tan Wcbinke: 1. m Stembtoa (poo »f3: t T Kfoto (Crol 25.14. 3. K “ IS- J^tan IkoMytac 1. L Conran IGW) 48.30. 2. N Buucu (Rom) « 4ft 3. N h«n (Rom) 48.56. 400ra fcewtyta t. £ W 2. S PohJ (Qer)
3.46. tft i D Maganas (Grj 3 46J9 200m n ■■!(■■ fly 1 l. c Bremer (Gerl 1J57.tR 2. t Rupprafli (GerJ I S7JO-. 3=. O A brard (Fr). A Andarmaa I&WIB) 15A23 lOOm IxO- tetawd nwStaje i. M Wouda (Nath) 54.55, 2. J Kruppa (Gerl 34 02: 3. C Keller [Gerl e. S Handley (GB) 57.11. Women* «fep taiUarfhn T. j Slattern (Swef 2- 3 VDlt,Sf
(Gar) 27.23, 3, m Parsafoen [Finl 2768. 7«ta> bronatitioku. 1. T Miller jfifor) i-07-8): 2. V Uechka (Auq I.08.T6 3. a Pecx* (Pol) 1.06 33. loom froealylu. 1. 5 oOll^((5?r) sa0J I European record i; 2. S ?fJIph ‘G®> 54 48; 3 M Moravcova (Slo- W.1S.200m bactaorekte 1 . K Pt«m- snqjf t 1 * tanchaehuita (Gt»ri 2 09.54. 3. A Kajrar (Sloven) 2.12.20: 5, j X?Bi tadhrataM
■rorotato L S Hortxn iGbt) 4J9J0; Z G Loeda Castaru (Roml 4 J1 7e. 3, p Chraa J.4207 fratayta 1 c
1 5 ColUngs (GSt 6.43.43.
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| Z Sw«>en * 42.18. 3. Swtfcrarlond
I Table Tennis
WORLD CBAIU1 NIOC FINALS (Tlnniln. China): Mon: nuMlw ftitL- V ■*— -
1 sm0™ 21 m Sqrg wmwo im. n-u.
M-HkV Swranov (Befarus) tx j JfthB (Can) 21-16, 21-16, 21-rj. j Komm- S Pl®*" lEn») 21-15.
»"0»>ul IChinal bt W ScMogor (Aut) 31-17. 31-5. 71-10
• Steve Redgrave, the four-Hmu OKmple champion oa reman, has boon .nipuimodto a now committee creaiud by lira aovnm- nww to encoMtaga mow Young pnepta » MP |CU"9 me taWlWwti L. ' R°flnr Black and ■ ■*“ Durio an j commituw la 'croier England criuurt captoln Sir Colin Cowdnry.
ttol,0u* centre
to
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The Guardian Saturday December 14 1996
SPORTS NEWS 21
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Man and Boy, Richards has double in his sights
Ron Cox
Gordon- Richards,
the Greystoke trainer, hniite argu- ably the strongest hand of chasers in the country. December could be make or break for the stable’s Lofty expectations with a team comprising One Man. The Grey Monk. Addington Boy and Ungnirlnd
He Grey Mink came un- stuck in tie Hennessy, but may have the chance to gam consolation in the Coral Welsh. National at the end of the month.
Unguided Missile has been kept in reserve for a repeat bid In nest Saturday’s Better- ware Chase at Ascot, and today Richards will be look- ing for nothing JeSS than a sparkling win from One Man at Haydock en route to Kemp- ton’s Boxing Day feature, the King George.
Less than half an bom- later, Addington Boy will start favourite to defy top weight in the Tripleprint Gold Cup at Cheltenham.
One Man Jumped brilliantly for Mark Dwyer when trot- ting up in the Tommy Whittle Chase last year. His task is potentially tougher today, but he should have an important edge in fitness over Rough Quest and Nahfhen Lad.
Richard Dun woody teamed up with One Man in the re-
Dunwoody... rides One Man Richards... strong hand
scheduled King George Chase at Sandown In January and the combination Immediately
hit it off! but the grey's dismal Gold Cup performance remains a serious blemish an his record.
Legless between the last two fences. One Man trailed in a well-beaten sixth behind Imperial Call, with Rough Quest running the race of his life to finish second.
In anything approaching that form. Rough Quest would atm One Man (2.15) a fright In receipt of 121b, but the Grand National winner is said to be badly in need of the race. In the circumstances, it will be a surprise if One Man fens to win, and win welL
Addington Boy (2^0) was one of last season’s most pro- gressive novice chasers and he appears capable of more
iinpTiipPinflnt Judging by hlfi promising run into third place behind Challenger du Luc in the Murphy's Gold Cup at Cheltenham a month ago. *
He would have given the first two more to do had he not slipped and lost momen- tum cm the turn into home straight, and since he is not inconvenienced by fast ground, Addington Boy looks sure to iwafcw another bold bid.
Large Action, winner of the Bula Hurdle two seasons ago, has been declared to run
again, but Oliver Sherwood, his trainer, has warned be wffl not risk him if the ground is considered too fast
Even if he does Une up, Large Action could be taken off his feet over this trip, which is three furlongs shorter than the Fairyhouse race he won on yielding ground last time out
Bimsey is one that wQl hanrtia tV ground, but there remains a question mark over some of Reg Akehurst’s horses and it is almost by pro- cess of elimination that Prid- well (2.05) gets fee vote.
Though not the heartiest of battlers, Pridwell has a good record at Cheltenham and is the type to go well when fresh. He finished third be- hind Collier Bay in *h» Cham- pion Hurdle last season and the likelihood of a fest-run race today is in his favour.
The ranrtfrHnnc of the Lone- some Glory Hurdle suit Kar- shl (3.45). and Kibreet (1-00) will be hard to beat on his return to two miles in the George Stevens Handicap Qliny-
Back at Haydock, Dally Boy (2.50) can benefit from the strong handling of inform Russ Garritty to land the Old Han Country Chib Handicap HUrdle.
Dally Boy wandered off a true line close home when narrowly beaten by Anzum here last month He remains well handicapped.
Summertime and Gifford’s uneasy
JOSH GIFFORD blames summer jumping and too much moderate rac- ing for the plethora of small fields.
The Findon trainer ex- pressed Ms opinion after MiMUnp Yorkshire Gale to win the Wragge & Co Chal- lenge Handicap Chase, just six days after the 1 0-year- old bad finished fourth at Wetherby.
Yorkshire Gale easily landed his fourth course victory, making all the run-
ning to heat his only rival,
Glemot, by 10 lengths.
Yorkshire Gale is among Gifford’s better horses but he claimed flalda for these events will not improve while the racing pro- gramme, which now In- cludes summer jumping, caters for horses of moder- ate ability.
“Neither I nor the owner MlfA running that quickly, but the race looked like cut- ting np and Yorkshire Gale loves Cheltenham and Hfcmt
top of the ground,” said Gif- ford. “But these races also cut up because there are not tmrnigh good horses to go round and never will be while the powers that be look after moderate horses. If they stopped summer jumping it would help rac- ing in the airhntm- ‘Tve got Major Summit but nowhere to run him. He must either take on the big boys, which he Is not ready for, or carry top weight in a handicap. There are not
enough races to educate nice young quality horses.
“There are more horses than ever, but they are bad ones. My moderate horses have wan more times this year because I can’t find races for the better ones.”
Gifford is keen to atTn Yorkshire Gale at the Grand National, but he is losing the argument with owner Bill Naylor and the horse is likely to miss both the Betterware Cup and Welsh National as wriL
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2.10 (80 1, RMJA8, u Roberta (8-1): 2. - — (i v-4); 3. Fortlmotooe U
(7-1). 9-4 18V KNar. 10 ran. 4, 80 no. (L Montague Had) Tote: CBXO; £230. £1.50. Fg.SC DuN F: £1B.7a Trio: £25X0. CSF; £2832. Triatot C165XB IX* (Tfy 1, RUPBEMR HUUMOOM, T Q McLaughlin (3-1 JMav): a, Howor ooV Lovwr (ZO-1); a, RaBaark (7-7). 3-1 JMav RayN Reader*, a ran. 4. 4. (M Pounm] Tote: £430: £130. £5.70. £2Xa DuN R £39X0. CSF: £4034
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FLRCNXm £708X0. QUAMmitom
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22 SPORTS NEWS
Soccer
World Cup, Group Nine
Northern Ireland v Albania
Mystery men come into
the Irish cold
Michael Walker in Belfast
The mysterious
phenomenon known as the Albanian foot- ball team moves Into the cold and probably half- empty auditorium called Windsor Park this afternoon — an achievement in itself.
A couple of weeks ago this Northern Ireland fixture looked In doubt after Fifa ve- toed the Albanian FA’s partic- ipation in World Cup affairs because of "political interfer- ence" from the Albanian government.
Apparently the Albanian regime, whose elections ear- lier this year fell short of nor- mal definitions of democratic, came up with the notion that because their FA had not held elections for some time, it had abused its authority.
The Albanian FA was promptly dissolved and replaced- However, once Fife, -that bastion of democracy, heard of this they came riding to the rescue of the original members who were as promptly reinstated, having given the guarantee of an election In February.
Thus today’s game goes ahead although, to add in- trigue, the Albanian FA's gen- eral secretary Eduard Dervi- sh! has not made it to Belfast Then again, neither have some of the squad. Two play-
ers from the Greek dub Kala- mata have been stranded out- side Athens as a result of the farmers' blockade of roads while the midfielder Sokol Prenga refused to travel be- cause he says he has not been paid for the 1~1 draw with Ar- menia last month.
Astrit Hafizi, the Albanian manager appointed after the 3-0 defeat by Portugal in the opening qualifier, may there- fore think he needs sympathy from his opposite number.
Bryan Hamilton, though, has severe problems of his own. Six players — Keith Gil- lespie (Newcastle), Jim Magil- ton (Southampton), Nigel Worthington (Stoke), Anton Rogan (MIHwaIl\ Danny Grif- fin and George O'Boyle (both St Johnstone) — have with- drawn from the original squad In the past five days and there has been a spat with Hamilton's predecessor Billy Bingham over the avail- ability of the Blackpool striker James Quinn.
Bingham, a Blackpool di- rector, suggested that, if Quinn was a substitute today, he would have been better off playing for Blackpool against Preston last night This has not gone down too well; Quinn remains in Belfast He may well feature because Northern Ireland need goals if they are to build on their inspired draw in Nuremburg last month.
Group Seven: Wales v Turkey
Wales look to video reviver
Bobby GOULD has tried to help his Wales play- ers forget the humilia- tion in Holland by playing them a video compilation il- lustrating how well they have played since then with their dub sides.
As Wales prepared for today's Group Seven game with Turkey, Gould at- tempted to restore confidence with the video screening, hop- ing club form can be welded into an effective national team effort
Wales, who have six points out of 12 at the halfway stage, will again top tbelr group if they beat the Turks and the current leaders Holland draw in. Belgium tonight But Wales have played more games than their main rivals and must win their remaining four matches to reach the target Gould set be- fore the opening game against San Marino in June.
“I said 18 points because that would make qualifying a cast-iron certainty." recalled Gould, who shrugged off the suggestion that four wins out of four may be beyond his team after the 7-1 drubbing in Eindhoven last month.
"Ask Wimbledon if it’s real-
istic," said the former Dons manager, referring to his old dub’s unbeaten run in the Premiership.
Gould has given his team to the players but will not an- nounce it until an hour before kick-off.
Neither would he reveal which player will have a fit- ness test this morning. Mark Hughes seemed the obvious candidate but the player him- self declared he was ready to face the Turks with his shin wound protected by padding. ‘Tt*s tender but, provided I don’t get a whack on it HI be an right" said the Chelsea striker.
Hughes is poised to resume his striking partnership with Dean Saunders, who has been a useful spy for Gould having spent last season playing for Galatasaray in Turkey.
Hughes’s return, along with those of Ryan Giggs and the captain Barry Home, will give Wales a much stronger look than in Holland. Gould also makes changes at the back with Mark Bowen dropped and Alan Neilson in- jured. Huddersfield's Steve Jenkins may come in at right- back and the versatile Gary Speed deployed as a sweeper.
Performance of the week:
Alf Inge Haaland (Notting- ham Forest), who helped bring a glimmer of hope in Monday’s draw with
Newcastle.
AN Other
LONDON does not often produce the good technique allied to a shrewd football- ing brain that this Chis- wick-bom midfielder em- bodied during the course of a long and varied career. For 10 seasons he stayed home on the range, briefly leading bis country. Then he mended windows, re- turned to old haunts for a while, and reached for the shy before touring the old GWR routes, with a stop- over by a famous victory in between. He now runs a
sugar emporium.
Last week: Bob Paisley (Bishop Auckland, Liverpool X
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Polling his weight . . . Waddle, keen to make it to management one day, encourages his fellow Bantams Andrew vafiley
Streetwise and fancy-free
Michael Walker meets Chris Waddle, 36 today, turning out for Bradford City and still showing flair and invention
INVENTION and flair: Kevin Keegan sat in the echoing squash court that doubles as Newcastle United’s venue for press con- ferences and lamented that the essential ingredients which have spiced up his team in the past have been missing recently.
It was the Monday after Newcastle had lost to Arsenal and the day before Metz ar- rived at St James' Park. Kee- gan hoped for better that night too, but Invention and flair were again left on the shelf However, if the Newcastle manager had been tempted to look to the skies for inspira- tion, his eyes would have stopped at the television gan- try. There in the commentary box sat a genuine master of Invention. Chris Waddle.
Waddle is 36 today and will turn out for Bradford City at home to Reading, and to those who think it Celt- fetched that he' could still be playing for Newcastle there is Peter Beardsley (36 next month) and the fact that it is only nine months since Keegan last tried to sign Waddle. It never happened, though, and the player Is sorry about that “Newcastle had a lot of inju- ries and suspensions at the time and I was ready to fafcw a gamble," he says. “A player like myself would love to play for Newcastle or Man United or Liverpool, it's Just the way they play football. And l think David Pleat would have let
me go, but he had other pressures.”
They came pot least from Wednesday fans disgruntled that Waddle was on the bench. Pleat, aware of Wad- dle's rapport with foe Hills- borough crowd, had put a £750,000 tag on his player — Celtic had offered that before Newcastle, but Waddle de- clined — and Pleat rejected £300,000 from Sunderland.
Yet Pleat would not give Waddle the two-year contract
my match fitness, not just to others but to myself. When 1 came back [to England] it did surprise me that no one came In from the Premiership."
After all it was only three seasons ago that he was Foot- baller of the Year.
However, he realises there may he a good reason. Wad- dle is ambitious, has made no secret of it, and any dub man- ager tempted by his shuffling skills might be put off by the thought of signing a succes- sor In waiting. In October Waddle was sitting at home near Sheffield “with Saturday approaching. Td got fit and had a few inquiries from Chesterfield, Walsall, that sort of level — no disrespect
‘It did surprise me that no one came in from the Premiership’
he wanted and, after a frus- trating end to last season and the summer. Waddle was given a free transfer, but only after this season started. "1 didn't see that David Pleat had any plans for me," says Waddle. “His ideal opportu- nity to let me go came when they woo their first four league games and he obvi- ously felt more secure. But the season had begun and most managers had their squads sorted.”
So Waddle waited by foe telephone but. when it rang, it was not Old Trafford or An- field calling, it was Brockvffle Park — Chris Waddle was off to Falkirk. "I was a little dis- appointed by the lack of offers and I went to Falkirk to prove
— then Bradford came along and said what I wanted to hear: ‘Just go out and play'."
Initially with Bradford for a month. Waddle has signed for the season and is in such form that last Saturday’s per- formance at Maine Road was mentioned in despatches as a “masterclass". Bradford still lost, however, and face Read- ing with only Oldham below them in foe First Division, but Waddle would have ap- preciated the irony had they won because Manchester City are the dub with whom he came closest to achieving his ambition to be a manager.
"Yeah, I spoke to a consor- tium and they were keen to install me as the manager but Tm glad it didn't happen In a
way. I want a club as ambi- tious as I am, that wants to win things. I'm not just look- ing for a job for two yean, then get the sack and have people saying, ‘Well, what did he do when he was here?1 ”
In a career entering Its 18th season and that has taken in Newcastle, Spurs, Marseille, Sheffield Wednesday, Falkirk, Bradford and 62 caps for Eng- land, Waddle has experienced many management styles: he favours a combination of Terry Venables and Arthur Cox, a sort of 'charismatic disciplinarian.
“Terry had presence, he had this aura about him and could get players to express themselves. He could get play- ers to believe they were better than they were.
“Arthur Cox, he bullied me for two years and I thought he was a right bastard. But I know now that he was never off 'my back because he wanted me to achieve some- thing. Lots of young players think they are the finished article but they’re not. I stm call him ’boss'.”
The secret, he thinks, is being streetwise — “common- sense streetwise. I've got that”. So it is not fancy training regimes learned in Marseille?
"Nah. there we just played eight-a-side with big goals for an hour every morning. Mind you, we had foe players."
They certainly did: Ahedi
Pole, Jean-Pierre Papin, Di-
dier Descbamps and the man the owner Bernard Tapie called “magique" — Chris Waddle. His video was a best- seller in France after he left: it was called The French Way. Keegan would have titled it Invention and Flair.
Referees biased, claims Di Canio
Patrick Glenn
CLAIM by Celtic’s Ital- ian forward Paolo Di :o of a Protestant conspiracy among Scot- land’s referees Is likely to be investigated by the Scot- tish FA next month.
Di Canio is reported to have told the Italian sports magazine Guerin Sporttoo
in a taped Interview that many Scottish match offi- cials are “shameless” in their bias against Celtic and in their favourable handling of Rangers.
“1 like everything in Scot- land except the referee- ing,” Di Canio is alleged to have said. “Ninety per cent of the referees are Protes- tant and I am playing for a Catholic dub. It shouldn’t matter, but it does. They are shameless.”
The SFA will exmaine his alleged comments and then decide whether to seek clar- ification from the player. Di Canio could be fined if 'found guilty of criticism of officials.
There Is no risk of the Italian finding trouble today, as Celtic are inac-
tive. Their match at Raitb was postponed because of international calls. And Di Canio is suspended for Celt- ic's next game, at Dunferm- line on Wednesday.
Dunfermline first face Rangers at Ibrox this after- noon, giving the champions another opportunity to stretch their lead over Celtic to 11 points. Walter Smith's side foiled to ex- ploit Celtic's midweek Inac- tivity when beaten 1-0 at Dundee United.
But Smith dismissed the notion that Old firm play- ers feel more pressure this
season because of Rangers’ attempt to equal Celtic’s' re- cord nine successive championships.
"There is certainly more hysteria around outside the clubs,” he said.
“The onus of winning tro- phies is always with Old Firm players and this sea- son is no different.”
Smith restores Jorg Al- berts to his squad after his recovery from a thigh in- jury. Aberdeen, now second, will entertain Motherwell with the same squad that beat Hearts 2-1 on Wednesday.
Athletics
The Guardian Saturday December 14 1996
Robson relief as Emerson is back for Boro
EMERSON, the wayward Brazilian Middles- brough signed for £4 million from Porto, returns tc the side against Liverpool at Anfleld today in a move that the manager Bryan. Robson hopes will end a long-running saga of trouble and strife.
The gifted midfielder flew bads to Brazil again last month and threatened not to return to England this time because his wife was home- sick. There have been reports of a possible move from the chilly north-east to foe sun- nier ri imm: of Barcelona but Robson has had clear-the-air talks with the unsettled cou- ple and insisted: "Things are looking a lot belter. Emer- son's wife is now 1 00 per cent committed to giving it a go in this country.
“Hopefully the meeting has resolved a lot of problems. We have tried to handle the situa- tion. with common sense and
we are prepared as a club to
support Emerson. He has had problems but not been n» bad as made out. There have been inaccurate reports.
"His wife seems a lot hap- pier after the talks we haw hr-»H and so does he. There have never been any prob- lems with Emerson In train- ing or on the pitch. We will do everything we can to help his wife feel relaxed and settled in this country-’*
Emerson's team-mate Fa- brizio Ravanelli Is to sue the Daily Mirror for suggesting be too was unhappy and wanted to leave. *T have read a number of articles which attribute comments to me which have been without any foundation whatsoever." he said. "The articles in the Mir- ror have caused me great embarrassment.
“I want to tell all Boro fans that I could not have hoped to settle in better on Teesside."
Sugar junior has Iversen’s number
Soccer Diary
Robert Pryce
STEFFEN IVERSEN may be feeling a tittle tired — ■ he hasn’t had a break since Rosenborg resumed their European Cup programme in March — but the Norwegian, touch wood, appears ready to break Tottenham’s recent buying trends: after Cundy. Scott, Fox, Sinton and Scales, fens were coming to expect cast-offs. “Whose reserve team does he play fbr7” asked one when told that Spurs were trying to sign Ramon Vega.
But Alan Sugar, who con- tinues to wax Utter on the subject of overseas signings, may have a different view. Tftmrifng Iversen the No, 18 shirt was not quite the warm gesture of welcome It seemed, given that Sugar once said he would not wash his car with the garment with that number as worn
by -Tfirggn Ktinsmawn.
Iversen, who said be bad not known about the Klins- mann connection, may not have wanted the shirt and the comparisons it invited with Its previous owner, but strangely enough he was given no choice in the matter. He just took the one that Daniel Sugar threw across to him.
like everyone else at Boro jumped by Slaved and Gary Pal lister — and there were a few — • he never even flinched. “He never smiled and he never jumped,” Slo- ven said. “He just sort of walked away . : .**
Q|RUCE RIOCH may not
have hit it off with Ian Wright, but he impressed players at Middlesbrough when he was manager there in the late Eighties, as Bernie Slaven has been telling MSS, the magazine of Middlesbrough Support- ers Sooth. “He did a great job,” the striker said. “If it wasn’t for Bruce, I don’t be- lieve Middlesbrough would have survived."
Rioch was known as a dis- ciplinarian even then, yet he tolerated some of the lads' more juvenile lapses. “There was one occasion,” Slaven recalled, “when me and Pally jumped up on a bedroom window ledge, hid behind the curtains, and we heard the door closing . . . We presumed it was Dean Glover. So the two of ns leapt about six feet, landed an top of who we thought was Beano, and it was actu- ally Bruce Rioch.”
A hard man, Rioch. Un-
HERE's an unmissable opportunity for you memorabilia collectors: Barren Brady's former company car — a J-reg pow- der-blue Porsche Carrera — Is being auctioned for char- ity next week. This Is the very Porsche that the Bir- mingham City managing di- rector was driving to a Neighbourhood Watch meeting when a Chanel handbag was snatched off the passenger seat by an op- portunistic youth.
John Dixon, managing di- rector of a Coventry com- puter firm, paid £32,000 for the car. He has donated it to the charitable trust that he set up after his wife died of cancer — he aims to raise £1 million to build a hos- pice— and it will be the top Item to go under the ham- mer at the opening night of Little Red Riding Hood at the Priory Theatre in Ken- ilworth on Wednesday.
Brady has supplied Dixon with a letter of authentica- tion. which is a charitable enough gesture even if It is unlikely to reassure any potential purchaser — Bir- mingham City were fined £20.000 only last month on four charges of misleading the public.
^%ELIA SMITH loves foot- B#ball and food, passions as previously irreconcilable as Birmingham City and success, and now that she is on the Norwich City board she plans to sort out the Car- row Road catering. But first, she told the Carlton Food Network this week, “1 have to do something about the strip” — and she doesn't mean marinade It in lime juice and coriander.
When she’s finished with Norwich, can she sort out the Welsh team, please? Removing the ketchup from their shirt fronts would be a good start.
NT everything on Tees-
side is less inviting than Rio de Janeiroslde. Moaner’s comedy dob In Stockton promises in its brochure of forthcoming events: "Even Emerson’s wife would enjoy this.”
Coventry tied by red tape
COVENTRY'S hopes of strengthening their squad before Christmas have been dashed by red tape. The man- ager Gordon Strachan had hoped to complete the £800,000 signing' of the Ukraine defender Alexander Jewtuschok from Dnepr but the 26-year-old will have to wait another three or four weeks.
Coventry’s secretary Gra-
ham Hover said: "Documen- tation that we require from the Ukrainian FA to enable us to apply for a work permit has still to come through.”
The Sheffield Wednesday striker Mark Bright has joined Mill wall on a month’s loan, but Bolton have failed in an attempt to secure foe Wednesday midfielder John Sheridan on loan for a second month.
Passport plan to put pressure on drug cheats
Duncan Macfcay In Monte Carlo
THE latest move in the battle against drugs cheats was made here yesterday when plans for a special “passport” for ath- letes were revealed. It is hoped the scheme will help the sport avoid expensive legal battles.
The International Amateur Athletic Federation estimated
last year that litigation over disputed drug tests cost it and its member federations at least $24 million (£14 million). Now, with *20m in prize money available at the lAAF’s events next year, the organisation is to demand that the top 20 athletes in each event register for a pro- gramme of ont-of-competition drugs testing to qualify to receive prizes.
The passport is a develop- ment of a contract introduced
before last summer’s Olym- pics. which requires competi- tors to accept a fast-track ap- peals procedure and to abandon their normal legal rights. It would allow the 1AAF to broaden the scope of its drugs tests.
Explaining suspicion sur- rounding startling improve- ment, Primo Nebiolo, the IAAF president, said: “IF someone who is not ranked in the top 20 at the beginning of next year wins a gold medal
at our world championships in Athens, then we will con- gratulate them and pay them the money. But they must know that we will be testing them fer more often than any- one else in the future."
Nebiolo announced that the first IAAF event to pay prize money will be the world in- door championships in Paris next March. World-record bo- nuses of *60,ooo will also be on offer.
Had such a system existed
at the Atlanta Olympics, Michael Johnson and Svet- lana Masterkova would have won at least *200,000 in addl- tion to their two gold mwiaio and Donovan Bailey would have banked a similar amount for winning the ioq metres in world-record time. Last night the three received fecial awards at the Interna- tional Athletic Foundation's annual dinner.
While the rich were dining out on the Cote d’Azur, foe
poor men aT Great Britain’s cross-country team were pre- paring to travel to Belgium for tomorrow's European championships. The British Athletic Fderation. short of money. Is sending a gold- medal rated team to Charleroi without reserves.
Since Keith Cullen, fourth last year, has been suffering from flu ail week it is a risky policy, especially since the first reserve, Neil Caddy, has been in fine form.
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The Saturday December 14 1996
Rugby Union
International : England v Argentina
Rowell spectre at the feast
Robert Armstrong says only a multi-try win today will satisfy the England coach
THE England coach Jack Rowell win be banking heavily on a cheerful Christmas and a non-controver- sial New Year in the wake of today's international against Argentina at Twickenham.
In theory the Argentinians should not present a major ob- stacle, even with New Zea- land's Alex Wy&ie now on 1 their couching stag; but Rowell , has too modi experience of apparently second-rank oppo- nents to be unaware that snares and pitfalls lie in wait.
It was almost a year ago that Rowell plunged deep Into a winter of discontent when England suffered the embar- rassment of booing qnd slow handclapping during their un- convincing victory over the visiting Western Samoans.
Then, as now, England were making a - painful at- tempt to develop a flexible, running style that Rowell
subsequently jettisoned when the chips were down and he had to win the Calcutta Cup
matdh against Scotland.
Once again Rowell’s ines- capable 6ft Sin shadow looms large over England's mostly Cloistered five-day build-up. As the England coach prowls the corridors of his team's Richmond hotel dispensing barbed witticisms like a per- verse Santa Claus, the players will be nervously aware that anything less a stylish, multi-try victory win bring down upon their well- rewarded heads a ton at; let us say, brandy sauce.
Like any successful com- pany director, Rowell Is a past master at playing for time and making modest achievements sound like minor miracles. He was at it again this week, suggesting that England's pffsftfos Improved out of sight, when all the world had seen the
backs performing like jerky marionettes in last month’s 34-19 defeat by the New Zea- land Barbarians. If Rowell's squad preparations had not been seriously disrupted by club politics in the early -autumn, the weight of expec- tation would have been much heavier by the time they met the New Zealanders, whose An Blacks had been beaten 16-5 at Twickenham in 1993.
As things stand. Rowell’s new-age England have lost the only tnatnhpg that have really mattered this year — against France and the New Zealand Barbarians — although they did win the Five Nations Championship with a bit of in- direct help from Wales.
In Rowell’s favour it must be said that the forwards, not least the newcomers Regan, Shaw and Sheasby, have been in compelling form, although they did lose the plot a little in the final quarter of the New Zealand game. Bath in- siders have long claimed that the England coach is comfort- able only when working with the pack, even though his
public utterances tend to focus on the backs. If that is correct, chances are that Rowell does not work on the same wavelength as Les Cus- worth and MDce Slemen, his specialist backs coaches.
Rowell Is not a man who readily admits to disappoint- ment yet one senses a mix- ture of surprise and baffled pride each time England fa a to one of the southern hemi- sphere giants. Since he took charge 32 months ago the for- mer Bath coach has regis- tered one win apiece against South Africa and Australia, but there have been two de- feats each by the New Zea- landers and South Africa. That mediocre record maicwt it doubly important to trounce Argentina.
However, one myth that clings to Rowell needs to be
dispelled: fhn mutimipt»qn that
he Is an arrogant dictator. Not even his closest colleagues would describe the Engtand coach as a modest man hut few would deny that he is accessi- ble. open-minded and ready to devolve power and responsi-
bility to lieutenants capable of biting the bullet.
Indeed, some members cff the England camp believe that Rowed, for from befog arro- gant, has a sentimental weak- ness for old friends and fam- iliar players that does not sit easily with the tough decisions expected of an International coach. Dick Best, foe former
England coach, was probably dose to the mark when he claimed that Rowell has al- ways avoided confrontation.
One thing is certain: Rowell and Jason Leonard, his tem- porary captain, will have done their homework on the strong; aggressive Argentina pack, which offers the Pumas their best chance of an upset Determined forwards such as Hanes, Martin and Bouza won enough ball in recent Tests against the Springboks and France to enable the cre- ative talents of backs such as Arbizu, Quesada and Jurado to flourish and produce tries.
England, though have no excuses for failing to live up to their potential, having got the cobwebs out of their sys-
Rowell . . . mediocre record
tem with an aggregate of nine tries against Italy and the
New Zealanders. The return
of two of Rowell's old boys, Jeremy Guscott and Tony Underwood, could well bring more flair and pace to the three-quarter line, provided foe half-backs GomarsaU and Catt, who has been passed fit despite a chest injury, make the bullets to tire.
EMHAMDi N Baal (Nortnampton); J Sleigh th aim* (Bath). W Carlins
(Harlequins). J Onacatt (Bath). A UMtarmod INMKtMt): M cm (Bain). A OonaraaS (Wtapa); Q lawshn . (Lefcoatsr). H Hasan (BrtatoQ, J taannni (Harlequins, capi). S Sa» (Brtntofl. ** i Johnson (LtlCMler). T Redbar (Northampton). L DrttegSo (Waps). C Sbaasfav (Wasps). Rap taoaman tat 4 CaHard (Batti). A King (Wasps). K Brackan (Saracens). ■ Hardwick
(Coventry). P Orv« i a (Qtoucaatar). ■
Woeene, L Artfau (capo, D JUbaweeei a Qaesada, N Mlrandai R Qran, C rianaaria, M Baimiariln. P Sperteder, Q Lianas, R Martin, P Iowa, P
F Cardie. P «dn5' BoaSo. O Haaan, R Pern
Ralaraat T Henning (BA).
Small plays the big man for the Boks
Donald McRae on
the self-confessed ‘nut* who wants to sell underwear and become as cultured as Eric Cantona
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({M M JVITH a name ■ ■■ like mine,” Wmwm says James W W Small with a helpless grin. “I was always destined to end up facing a guy as huge as him. Eighteen months ago we’re In Johan- nesburg, my old home town, and it's the World Cup final, the Springboks against the All Blacks. This is the one we’ve been dreaming of for so long- The whole nation, from Nelson Mandela down. Is rocking. ' You -can-feel this longing far us to win. But, to be honest. I’m scared to death."
A tiny laugh slips out, as engagingly dry as the South African wing is In person. “Jonah Lomu’s awesome. He's standing tall at 6ft 5in and clocking in at 120 kilos, rm 5ft lOln and sitting pretty on the same wing at 85. And the whole country is saying, 'go on James, go get him, boy!”’
Small settles back into memory, already anticipating the delicious twists to a story which defines him as one of international rugby’s most resourceful players and great- est characters.
Just before the game Man- dela. wearing his replica Springbok jersey as he moved down the line to meet both teams, stopped in front of Small. The President offered the No. 14 a curious smile. "And then," Small says, “Mandela laughed, very gently. You could see it in his eyes. He was- thinking, 'Shame! This poor guy is marking Lomu.' Mandela took my hand and said, 'You've got a big Job to do today, Mr Small.' "
Much as we can delight in the cuteness of this name- play. the 27-year-old Small is no stripling- While he may be dwarfed by Lomu he still ex- udes the physical presence nf a wide-shouldered light- heavyweight. Yet it is the Im- posing psychological hold Small exerts over bis larger opponents which has made him such an icon — espe- cially on that gloriously sunny afternoon when the
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Near a record . . . Small at the National Stadium where he closes in on Frik du Preez’s 38 caps with a 35th Springboks appearance jbt Morgan
South African dumped Lomu on the Ellis Park turf in a he- roic series of tackles.
“When you hit him hard," Small says thoughtfully, “it doesn't feel normal. It’s like hitting a walk He's no ordi- nary guy. But I got his atten- tion. Jonah's now very aware of me on the park, Tm this psycho-kid . who's not gonna, stop at anything.”
Small often plays up to this unhinged persona, for he thrives on the enduring inten- sity of his role as the most controversial player in South African rugby. Though revered in his adopted prov- ince of Natal, in the rest of the country he is more often regarded as, in his own dls- ' arming phrase, "a fucking j
nut”. . i
Small's notoriety is not rooted in mere myth. He has ! twice been dropped by his be- loved Springboks for disci- 1 plinary reasons — a fact which will not prevent him f!\<ylng in on Frflc'du Preez’s
25-year-old record of 38 caps when, against Wales at the National Stadium, Cardiff, tomorrow he patrols the wing for the 35th time.
Small prefers to reflect on the fact that “it’s been pretty much an even spread of ups and downs over the last nine years. At the start of each sea- son I think that this is gonna be a good year, a peaceful year. But then, somehow, I self-destruct
“In 1984 a guy punches me in a night-club just before the Argentina Test Stupidly I punch him back. I get turfed out of the side. Then, earlier this year, they drop me against the All Blacks be- cause there's this huge scan- dal that Tm partying on the Thursday night before a Test
“It was blown right out of proportion, rm getting Into black and white photography. Fashion stufE. So I go to my friend’s fashion show and then — pow — the bomb goes nfr rm ‘disciplined* again.
International ■ Wales v South Africa
Wales hope lies in fatigue
David Pttmmier hi Cardiff
SOUTH AFRICA end the most punishing sched- ule in their history tomor- row when they take on Wales at the National sta- dium, It will be their lSth Test In 166 days and they have spent the week relax- ing after a tour to Argen- tina and France.
The South Africans regard tomorrow as a game too far after a hectic •P®*Jod which started with the Super 12 series in March- They were lured to Cardiff believing they would bring the curtain down on u*e
National Stadium before the bulldozers moved in.
But contractors deciaeo they did not have to start work until February, which means two more in- ternationals there to*®** construction of a 70,000 all- seat stadium begins* .
The South Africa coach Andre Markgraaff is not
amused. “Really we shonld never have accepted tins itinerary but we agreed to play Wales because it was to be the last match at then: stadium. Unfortunately thatls now not the case.
“It is surprising but i do not want to say modi be- cause of the friendship which exists between the countries.”
Despite their fatigue the same team who won their fbur games in Argentina and France are determined
to make it five in Cardiff •
Wales’s innocent gusto of last season’s championship has been replaced by a more functional approach. But they have yet to find the right formation in any of the three forward
dft^5le^Sth Africa have power and pace at tonwd. Wales have neither. After being routed at the line-out by two makeshift Amtra- Uan second-rows, Wales have chosen five Jumpers
and will show more varia- tion tomorrow with the No- 8 Steve Williams used as a rover.
Welsh preparations yes- terday were disrupted when Allan Bateman and Gareth Llewellyn were stuck on a train outside Raadtng because of a derail- ment while the squad trained. _
The Wales coach Kevin Bowring said: “We know it will be our hardest match tfafa year but we will go into it believing we can win. We are good enough but we have to start putting our game together over 80 minutes.”
WAUBi M JaOlnw (Pontojftffi * S'*11* (Llanelli). * 5 '
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“In New Zealand some talk- show host says that you can see how badly drugs have af- fected me. He says you can see the madness in my eyes. And while he’s talking they start showing these dips. I might be about to ruck a ball but they freeze the frame and say look at the frenzy in James Small'. After a while you just say to hell with it Tm happy with my image. It sells and it forces people to give me a little space. A lot of them think rm gonna turn round and deck them.
"When we attended this State President’s function for winning the World Cup, Man- dela comes up and says, ‘James Swiwl), my son has
posters of two white men an over his walL One of them is Francois Pienaar, which I can understand. But. for some un- known reason, the second man is you.' He laughed, but that matte me think — jeez, even the President thinks Tm bad.”
Former Wales prop sues Merle overhead-butt
RICKY EVANS, the Wales prop put out of the game tor more than tour months by a head-butt from Olivier Merle in a 1995 Five Nations match in Paris, is suing the France lock for damages in the French courts.
Evans, a fireman who now packs down for Cardi- gan at the age of 36, suf- fered a broken nose and, as he fell, a double fracture of the leg and ligament dam- age in his left ankle, which had a screw and plate in- serted. The former Llanelli player has needed farther time out for more surgery on the ankle.
‘1 kept quiet in 1995," Evans said yesterday. “I now realise that but for Mr Merle 1 would have been the No. 1 loose-head prop far Wales in the World Cup.
“After that, when the the Welsh team became profes- sional, X lost oat. They earned more in the next five games than I received in all my 19 internationals.”
Small, who has apparently done everything than biting his follow Springbok Hennie Le Rous on the thigh to lead- ing his teenage following towards the depths of moral depravity, is intent on discov- ering a more cultural side to his complex personality.
'7 was recently paid my big- , gest compliment," be mur- murs. “I was described as the i Eric Cantona of South Africa. , If I had just an ounce of the skill Cantona has in his left < foot Fd be a happy man. But Canintia also has that im- mense intelligence.”
Small looks meaningfully at me before he takes out his wallet. Eventually he finds the neatly folded set of words. To achieve happiness,” he reads aloud, “sometimes you have to go through the worst depths of despair. Genius is about digging yourself out of the hole you have fallen — or been pushed — into. Failure makes you succeed.”
The Springbok tyro looks
Scotland v Italy
up sharply and confirms the truth — “that is a direct quote from Eric Cantonal"
"But James,” 1 reply, sounding as if I have lived In England a little too long, “you support Liverpool!”
“Ja,” he enthuses, with un- impeachable logic, “but 1 also love Cantona! You remember what he said about journal- ists and seagulls.”
Before 1 can trawl through any kung-fta links, Small tears away on another artistic Jag, raving about gritty American novels by Iceberg Slim and Edward Bunker before dip- ping down to talk about Mas- sive Attack, John Hyatt, The Waterboys . and other artists he features on a compilation album released in South Af- rica as The Small Collection.
"We've sold 15,000 so far and now I’ve just done this deal with a company called Mr Price. We're gonna do this range of underwear. We’ve got the perfect name. It just hag to be Smalls.”
Hastings back to do battle as Italy seek breakthrough
SCOTLAND will need to be [month’s 29-19 defeat b on their toes at Murray- Australia.
won their toes at Muixay- fleld today when they enter- tain Italy, who are keen to make a case for enlarging the Five Nations Championship.
The Italians, defeated 54-21 by England last month and maybe only a couple of good wins away from being invited to Jpln the championship, pushed Wales and Australia close earlier this season and see today as another chance to press their case.
“There are no easy games any more,” said the Scotland coach Richie Dixon. “Italy are here to win as part of their bid to get into the five . Nations and it is up to us to set the challenge for them.”
For Scotland the 23-year -old Northampton prop Matt Stew* art will make his debut white Scott Hastings, 11 years his senior, returns for his 68rd cap. The former Lions lock Andy Reed, who collected the last of his 10 caps more than j two years ago. replaces Dod- ! die Weir, dropped after last I
month’s 29-19 defeat by Australia.
Italy can call on Andrea Castellani and Giambatista Croci, who both missed foe England game through injury.
SCOTUNOr R Shepbanf (Mafi-oM); A Slander (Hawick). S Hasting) (Waisonlans). a Townsend (Northampton, capi). K Logan [Stirling County); C Chalmers (Melrose). ■ WerijiHi (Melrose); D Hflten I Bath), K — Ui (Stirling County). ■ em-sh
(Nortnampton), D Cronin I Wasps), A Rand (Wasps). ■ Wsdeea (QHX), I Smith lOUucoswr). E Raters (Both).
ITALY (tram): Meroella Cuttltta. O OnmlngusE, I PranooaaMo, Q CukZ, L Mortar!, F UazzarM, H Mnrrannte, J Parti]*, A Trowvan, p Vteearl, O Arwieio. A Rartrtlsai, e CTwithmMu, W CrtetelBlsWe, C Crori, m CTouwirtB (oapg. * H parent!. MIW CattWa. C Mans, F PrapMn-OM, A Sgorton. Hdwia 0 Quiet (France).
• Scotland Under-Zls showed the seniors the way as they cantered to a 41-15 win over Italy Under-21s at Inverlelth yesterday.
Two tries apiece from the Edinburgh Academicals winger Danny Bull and West of Scotland centre Alan Bui* loch, plus 18 points from the boot of Herlofs fly-half Gor- don Ross, set up the victory.
SPORTS NEWS 23
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Ml
Saturday December 11 1996
\T] Casting off the C. big shadow
V; Liam Botham turns away from cricket
20
Small explosion in Cardiff
South Africa's doughty winger faces Wales
TMSuardSan
Tour match: Matabeleland v England XI
Gough swings England win
David Hopps in Bulawayo
TINGLING reminder of Darren Gough's inspira- ; j&tiODai entrance MBS 14m nto Test cricket has left England confident that they are about to rectify a decade of under-achieve- ment overseas.
Eleven wickets for Gough in the match, the best return of his life, not only assured the tourists of a 115-run vic- tory against Matabeleland but convinced them that they begin strong favourites against Zimbabwe both in <
ENGLAND Xfe First .linings 1M , H V wriign-. in. j p Crame/ 6J) MATABELELAND: First innings 188 |W R James 62 Gough 6-eJ)
ENGLAND Xt 3*3cnc innings 33G-3 dec
iG P Tho'Po 85. M A Altierijn 55)
UATABSLEXAMD
Second innings lOvemlgnL 6-0 1
G J Whiiiali c Giddied 6 Gcujgn .... 11
M H DeUifr lb* 0 GrolJ _.... 104
M Ranched Itr* b Gough .... O
H H Struah b Caddica 07
tW R Jamas c Crawley 5 Crbll .... 7
M C1 Atr jmj low o Gough S
"J A Rennie rejl out 30
D VagnmJna c Stewart 0 Croft ... . 0
A R Whiball 0 Gough 18
H K Clonga b Gough 4
M Mbangwa c Crawlev b Croft . a
£«tr« |lt>3. nbJJ . 6
Total I45.S oversi . 861
Fafl ol wfckatai 16. 20 176. 1%. 196. 2D4. ZV- «1 . 2«
Bowling: Gough 24-6-7S-5: CaddfCk rO-'-JJ-I; Tulnyil 20-6—62-0. Irani 2. 2-0-7 -0. Thorpe 2.4-i-C-Q; Croll 23S-7-66-<
Umplroas ft Tillin and C Coventry
England won by 115 runs.
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tomorrow's opening one-day • \*1 . , • " ‘ ‘ .
international and in Wednes- \r ‘ * •-• ..2
day's first Test • 7” • . ' ' • t. . ' *v-
England like to dub Gough .* *. 1 1« * "Young Fred" after the most “
brazen of all fast bowlers. Pole vault. .. Gough removes Olonga's off stump to move. Fred Trueman, and, although
the nickname remains partly combination of a fiat Bula- 1 pretty much unavoidable in jest the Yorkshireman's wayo pitch and several bats- here anyway.
Pole vault . . . Gough removes Olonga's off stump to move another step closer to career-best figures of 11 for 139
PHOTOGRAPH: STU FORSTER
in jest the Yorkshireman's wayo pitch and several bats- perforraance against Mata be- men who looked uncomfort-
leland possessed a sustained hostility that resurrected memories of his belligerent displays in Australia two years ago.
Gough has been urged to become a more adaptable and flexible fast bowler since recovering from the broken
able against short-pitched bowling cleared his mind.
It was largely a case of just
here anyway.
Gough's five for 75 gave match figures of 11 for 139 in 41.2 overs. He reverted to his
David Lloyd. England's coach, said: “It was as flat as hell out there, there was noth- ing doing but Darren bowled aggressively, hit the players
That Matabeleland resisted ing his brother’s underpants until only 11.1 overs because his own were full of remained was largely due to holes. While England looked Mark Decker, a robust left- bemused, he proffered a con- hander whose 104 held up gratulatory bottle of lager
running In and bowling East length bowler, driving bats — a tactic which, unless Eng- men back with short deliver land suddenly discover a les and then firing the ball
instinctive style as a two- and hit the stumps. He's full England for nearly five hours from which Decker happily length bowler, driving bats- of himself — ‘1 can do that. I and contributed to an unre- swigged. Such moments do
men back with short deliver- can bowl fast rU do this, F1I land suddenly discover a les and then firing the ball be right’ — and it’s good to Wicketless in 20 overs yester- land’s sense of superiority,
haven for seam bowling, he into the blockhole. He swung see. People joke about day, Tufeell was always un- Lloyd was candid about
will be given licence to adopt the new ball away, hinted at bumper wars and things like likely to play in tomorrow’s England’s need for a greater
throughout the Test series, reverse swing with the old that but, if they can’t play the one-day international Russell contribution from Caddick,
warding day for Tufneil. nothing to undermine Eng-
throughout the Test series, reverse swing with the old
one-day international Russell I contribution from Caddick,
foot that threatened to wreck England will be feeding him and generally looked the cock short stuff then they are go- also stands down, with Silver- whose moderate form was ac-
his England career. But the on huge steaks, which is | of the walk again.
ing to get some.’
ISfeS
wood standing by as cover for centuated in this match by Irani, who injured his back. Irani’s own unmenacing per- He will not play unless Eng- formance as third seamer. It land are confident he can was left to Croft to offer complete his full allocation. Gough support, his four wick-
The informal atmosphere ets including that of Decker, that still pervades Zimbab- leg-before on the back foot wean cricket was illustrated England have lost two of by the fruition of a bet that their three one-day matches Decker had struck in the bar against Zimbabwe, all of them the previous evening when he staged in Australia. It will be challenged a drinking buddy a considerable disap point- called Barrel to streak across ment if they do not begin to the pitch if he made 100. right that record tomorrow.
Barrel (well named) duly ,
did so, but only after borrow- Mora Criokat, page 20
Scales plays by soccer’s sneaky rules
David Lacey
GROIN injury and Gerry Francis per- mitting. John Scales will take bis place in the Tottenham team against Leeds United this afternoon. It had been widely assumed that Scales would be appear ing at Eiland Road today but for Leeds, not Spurs.
Until lost Sunday night Scales gave every indication that he would be joining Leeds from Liverpool. He told tbe Leeds ClubcaU as much. Then he changed his mind and signed for Tottenham instead.
BillFotherby. the Leeds chairman, was incensed. Dig- ging deep into his vocabulary of invective he finally came up with a word to describe Sca- les’s about-turn. The player's behaviour, he said, had been ’’sneaky”.
Ouch! Yaroo! 1 say you fel- lows, play the game. When, a chap says he's going to join the team, it's a bit rotten sneaking off somewhere else. That's the sort of thing Johnny Foreigner does.
There is still a part of foot- ball that lives in a make-be- lieve tuck-shop world of simple loyalties and honour without profit. The truth is that in the world of profes- sional football these have sel- dom applied.
To be sure, theaverage foot- baller will commit himself wholeheartedly to whichever club he happens to be repre- senting. Even now there are players who have spent the bulk if not the whole of then- careers with one team.
It is hard, for example, to imagine Steve Bull playing Tor anyone but Wolves. In fact Scales has been signed by Tot- tenham to fill the gap left by a long-term Injury to another loyalist, Gary Mabbutt.
By and large, however, mod- em footballers are lump labour, moving from site to site and contract to contract Their principal loyalties are to themselves and their bank balances. They may give their all for the team but when, like
Scales, tfieirsmrlnw are no louger needed at one place they will generally ki**p their options open before moving **' another.
It was quickly assumed that Scales w;is lured to While Hart Lane by a more lucrative deal By moving to Spurs, it was reported, he had increased his weekly wage from £ 1 1 ,uOO to £18,000, which made him Tot- tenham’s highest -pa id player.
Nonsense, said Alan Sugar, the Spurs chainmin- Scales would be lucky if he earned £13,000a week. Something else must have lured him away from Leeds.
Perhaps he realised that Tottenham was In London Perhaps he had previously as- sumed it lay between Round- hay and Chapel AJIcrton; no matter. The thought occurs that, if Spurs feel a pi-year-old utility defender Is worth pal- ing £675,000 a year, then Dave Muckny might reasonably feel
he W3S born 30 years too soon. But that is no fault of Scales.
In fact his transfer from 1 ,iv erpaol to Tottenham could have taken place, in (hi* form It did. at any lime since profes- sional football came into being. He did not ask fora transfer but was placed cm the list as superfluous to Anfield's requirements.
Fotherby dearly consid- ered Scales's actions a breach of ethics. This is the club, remember, which sacked Howard Wilkinson in order to appoint a manager who had just served a one-year ban for allegedly receiving bungs on foreign transfers.
IF Scales did opt for a better offer from Spurs then he has surely done no more than conform to the game's growing belief that anything goes providing it makes a profit. Money has always been a prime motivating force in the professional game but now its rule is absolute.
Leeds are among the grow- ing number of clubs who have been or are about to be taken over by consortia of business men at a time when untold millions will shortly be on op by way of pay-per-view televi- sion. The fast buck is ap- proaching the sound barrier.
Whenever Scales appears at EUand Road he will doubtless be reviled by Leeds fans with a fury previously reserved for Eric Cantona. But surely all he has done is to play the game by its own rules — or the lack of them.
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The Week . page 15
Guardian
COLLINS
Crossword 20,836
A copy of the Collins Collins Roget’s International Thesaurus will be sent to tbe first five correct entries drawn. Entries to Guardian Crossword No 20,836, P.O. Box 315, Mitcham, Surrey CR4 2AX. by first post on Friday. Solution and winners in the Guardian on Monday December 23.
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9 They happen when 7 eats chicken— a sign (9)
10 Psalteria from Samoa (5)
11 Fflmsta' called Alan in show (7)
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14 Prinoess to fuel unfinished
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1 Possibly hides a pair on sea- irctins(IQ)
2 Fussy, suggesting some carry-on with the foot? (B)
3 Moving ungracefully to court retreat (6)
4 Fellow that may be French (4)
5 Clairvoyant possibly hides graft (3-7}
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8 Rag to show with 4 ’s 23 down (4)
14 In heavy snow shave off the power transmitter (5.5)
15 The neglected one of the shows (10).
17 Pre-Nasser party Whose dest- ruction was swift and sad (8)
IS Smalltime currency has a rough time In Ireland (6)
20 See6
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22 One of those in most of 3 for show, backed in due for 12
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23 Do it with shop and turkey (4)
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